Gulf of Mexico Basin

The maximum salinities in the Tertiary section of the Gulf of Mexico basin (the most extensively used strata for deep-well injection) reach almost four times that of seawater. The Michigan basin has the highest salinity, reaching 400,000 mg/L TDS, more than 11 times that of seawater. In Florida, however, where seawater circulates through the Floridan aquifer, maximum salinities tend to be controlled by the salinity of the seawater.79... 

Kraemer T. F. (1981) and concentration in brine from geopressured aquifers of the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 56, 210-216. 

There is also field evidence that halite-derived brines can be transported over long distances in sedimentary basins. For example, the chemical compositions of waters from the Houston-Galveston area, Texas, and several other areas in the northern Gulf of Mexico basin indicate dissolution of halite (Kharaka et al., 1985 Macpherson, 1992). However, in a number of these areas, there are no known salt domes within 50 km of the sampled sites. Large-scale fluid advection is probably the main mechanism for the... 

The transformation of smectite to mixed layer smectite-illite, and ultimately to illite, with increasing temperature is an extremely important reaction in many sedimentary basins, including the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin (Hower et al., 1976 Boles and Franks, 1979 Kharaka and Thordsen, 1992). The water and solutes released and consumed by this transformation are major factors in the hydrogeochemistry of these basins, because of the enormous quantities of clays involved. Several reactions conserving aluminum or maintaining a constant volume have been proposed for this transformation (Hower et al., 1976 Boles and Franks, 1979). The reaction proposed below (Equation (4)) conserves aluminum and magnesium, and is probably a closer approximation based on the composition of formation waters in these systems ... 

The isotopic composition of formation waters from many fields in the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin (Figure 13) fall on a general trend that passes through SMOW and away from the... 

California, in the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin, and in the North Slope, Alaska. In each basin, the compositions of effluent and hyperfiltrated waters were compared. The membrane effluent characteristics that were observed include the following chemical markers lower TDS and Ca/Na and Br/ Cl ratios, and higher Li/Na, NHa/Na, B/Cl, HCO3/ Cl, and F/Cl ratios. These chemical markers are similar to those predicted from laboratory studies when these are extrapolated to the temperature, pressure, and hydraulic pressure gradients in sedimentary basins (Kharaka and Smalley, 1976 Haydon and Graf, 1986 Demir, 1988). 

Kharaka Y. K., Lico M. S., and Carothers W. W. (1980) Predicted corrosion and scale-formation properties of geopressured—geothermal waters from the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin. J. Petrol. Technol. 32, 319—324. 

Wallace R. H., Kraemer T. F., Taylor R. E., and Wesselman J. B. (1979) Assessment of Geopressured-Geothermal Resources in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Basin. US Geological Survey Circular, Report C 0790, pp. 132-155. 

Figure 11 Silica concentration in pore fluids versus depth for Cenozoic units of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. Most fluids are oversaturated with respect to quartz (1 ft = 0.3048 m) (reproduced by permission of SEPM (Society from Sedimentary Geology) from Basin-wide Diagenetic Patterns, 1997, p. 36).

It is clear that the relative importance of pressure solution as a mechanism of IGV decline increases markedly with depth. It also varies in importance among units of different bulk composition. For example, pressure solution appears to be widespread in sandstones of plutonic derivation (Thomas et al, 1993 Oelkers et al, 1996 Spotl et al, 2000), but not in the largely volcanogenic Cenozoic sandstones of the Gulf of Mexico basin (Land et al, 1987 Land and Milliken, 2000). Controls that appear to favor the development of pressure solution include abundant potassium-rich micaceous debris, a history of meteoric water incursion, and elevated temperature (>100 °C ). 

Makowitz A. and Milliken K. L. (2(X)1) New data on the role of mechanical burial compaction in diagenesis Fro Formation, Gulf of Mexico Basin. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geologists Ann. Meet, pp. 123-124. 

Sharp J. M., Fenstemaker T. R., Simmons C. T., McKenna T. E., and Dickinson J. K. (2001) Potential of saUnity-driven free convection in a shale-rich sedimentary basin example from the Gulf of Mexico basin in South Texas. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geologists Bull. 85, 2089-2110. 

Figure 2.11 Variable depths to the geopressured zone in the Gulf of Mexico Basin, USA modified from Wallace and others, 1979 by Harrison and Summa, 1991 (after Harrison and Summa, 1991, American Journal of Science, Vol. 291, Fig. 3. Reprinted by permission of American Journal of Science).

Harrison, W.J. and L.L. Summa, 1991. Paleohydrology of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. 

The parent Na—Ca—Cl brine originates deep in the Gulf of Mexico basin, at temperatures between 200 and 250°C, by the reaction halite -1- detrital plagioclase -1- quartz -t- water albite -I- brine... 

Three other lines of evidence favor our hypothesis that Edwards brine evolves deep in the Gulf of Mexico basin and moves up-fault and up-dip to its present position. 

Bruce, C.H. (1984) Smectite dehydration and its relation to structural development and hydrocarbon accumulation in Northern Gulf of Mexico Basin. Bull. Am. Ass. Petrol. Geol., 68, 673-683. 

Bissada, K. K., Callejon, A., Quinones, N. H., Garcia, E. C. Gallardo, H. R. 2002. Biogenic methane in the Gulf of Mexico Basin—significant resource or secondary contaminant American Association of Petroleum Geologists 2002 Annual Convention, Abstract. 

R. T. Cantu-Chapa, A. (eds) The Western Gulf of Mexico Basin Tectonics, Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Systems. Ameriean Assoeiation of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, 75, 127-142. 

Kornacki, A. S., Allie, A. D. Holman, W. E. 1996. Wet bacterial gas in the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin. Transactions of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, 46, 476. 

Sedimentation during the Triassic and Jurassic in the Gulf of Mexico Basin was controlled primarily by rift margin tectonics (Mancini et a/. 1985, 1990 Salvador 1987). The regional tectonic setting was... 

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