Everett, John R.¹, Ronald J. Staskowski¹, Robert D Jacobi²
(1) Earth Satellite Corporation, Rockville, MD
(2) SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

ABSTRACT: Geochemical Indications of Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs in New York from ASTER Data

Fractured carbonate fields (e.g., Trenton-Black River Glodes Corners Road field, NY and Stony Point and Albion-Scipio fields, MI) are an end member of a continuum with Mississippi Valley type (MVT) lead-zinc deposits at the other extreme. Both the oil fields and MVT deposits involve: 1) the movement of large volumes of low temperature fluids (70ºC < T < 200ºC) and 2) fractured carbonate rocks that have undergone significant dissolution, dolomitization, and mineralization.
Digitally enhanced ASTER data (14 spectral bands from the visible to thermal infrared) reveal a large number of fractures. In the Bass Island trend, many of these fractures match known and postulated faults and fracture intensity domains, and soil gas surveys over these spectrally defined fractures show high values of C1 – C4.
In the Glodes Corners Road field area, field work confirmed a direct correlation between fractures mapped in the imagery and the location and orientation of fractures in the field. Small oil and gas seeps occurred along some of the fractures. Fall field work showed that specific vegetation types, growing in the fracture zones, cause the spectral signature seen in the summer imagery. Tree species within the fracture zones have mycorrhizal fungi internal to the roots whereas adjacent tree species have these fungi in external root nodes. Trees with internal root fungi are more tolerant to gas in the soil than trees with external root fungi.
These results suggest ASTER data are an effective tool in the exploration for fractured reservoirs in New York.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90026©2004 AAPG Annual Meeting, Dallas, Texas, April 18-21, 2004.