A Hydro-Geomechanical View of Seal Formation and Failure in Overpressured Basins

摘要

The formation of seals, and the consequent retention of overpressure, is a common and expected event during normal basin evolution in active basins that have a significant mudrock successsion. Seal failure, and the resultant limitation to fluid-pressure increase (valve action), is also an expected process. Hydro- geomechanical concepts, including poro-elasto-viscio-plasticity (PEVP), and discontinuum models, allow the processes of seal formation and failure to be explained, and predict the state of stress in, and behaviour of, overpressured rocks.