Groundwater flow, late cementation, and petroleum accumulation in the Permian Lyons Sandstone, Denver Basin

Lee Ming-Kuo Lee, C. M. Bethke

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The gray diagenetic facies of the Permian Lyons Sandstone, which is associated with all known petroleum accumulations in the formation, formed late in the history of the Denver basin as an alteration product of the formation's red facies. The gray facies is likely formed in a regime of groundwater flow resulting from Laramide uplift of the Front Range during the Tertiary. In the model presented here, saline groundwater flowed eastward through the Pennsylvanian Fountain Formation and then upwelled along the basin axis, where it discharged into the Lyons Sandstone. The facies' gray color resulted from reduction of ferric oxide in the presence of migrating oil or the Fountain brine. Underlying source beds by this time had begun to generate petroleum, which migrated by buoyancy into the Lyons. As petroleum accumulated in the Lyons, the newly formed cements prevented continued migration by sealing oil into the reservoirs from which it is produced today. -from Authors

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)217-237
Number of pages21
JournalAmerican Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin
Volume78
Issue number2
StatePublished - 1994
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Fuel Technology
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Geology
  • Geochemistry and Petrology
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

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