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Basement Tectonics and Shear Zones in Cauvery Basin (India): Implications in Hydrocarbon Exploration

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Tectonics and Structural Geology: Indian Context

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Abstract

Hydrocarbon exploration in basement rocks heavily relies upon tectonic and structural modelling. The Cauvery Basin in the southern part of India forms a major oil province with a basement that has been deformed multiple times with parts of it hosting oil. A GIS based workflow encompassing analysis of the structural signatures of tectonic episodes extracted from independent G&G data sets in the basinal areas and outcrop structural analogues have been used to identify similar such areas of basement prospectivity. The northern part of the Cauvery Basin had been affected by a number of E-W oriented brittle-ductile shear zones. These shear zones continue below the sediments of the basinfill as 250–400 m bands that dip steeply with extensive fracturing along the shear foliations. Later Phanerozoic deformations reactivated these fracture sets as well as created new NE-SW, NW-SE and N-S sets of fractures sympathetic to their respective tectonic trends. Areas of overlap between these various phases of deformation results in zones of high secondary porosity and permeability at basement top. Structural highs in basement formed during the main phase of rifting associated with areas of high porosity forms promising areas of basement exploration. E-W oriented fractures and faults resulting from reactivation of shear zones are the most reactivated ones under in situ stress regime and play a major role in charging of the basement reservoirs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to Soumyajit Mukherjee (IIT Bombay) for handing and reviewing this manuscript. The other anonymous reviewer is also thanked. Mukherjee (2019) summarizes this work.

The views expressed by the authors in this manuscript are not necessarily similar to the views of the organization they represent.

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  1. ONGC, Dehradun, India

    S. Mazumder, Blecy Tep, K. K. S. Pangtey & D. S. Mitra

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    Soumyajit Mukherjee

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Mazumder, S., Tep, B., Pangtey, K.K.S., Mitra, D.S. (2019). Basement Tectonics and Shear Zones in Cauvery Basin (India): Implications in Hydrocarbon Exploration. In: Mukherjee, S. (eds) Tectonics and Structural Geology: Indian Context. Springer Geology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99341-6_9

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