Rock physics model of glauconitic greensand from the North Sea

The objective of this study was to establish a rock physics model of North Sea Paleogene greensand. The Hertz-Mindlin contact model is widely used to calculate elastic velocities of sandstone as well as to calculate the initial sand-pack modulus of the soft-sand, stiff-sand, and intermediate-stiff-sand models. When mixed minerals in rock are quite different, e.g., mixtures of quartz and glauconite in greensand, the Hertz-Mindlin contact model of single type of grain may not be enough to predict elastic velocity. Our approach is first to develop a Hertz-Mindlin contact model for a mixture of quartz and glauconite. Next, we use this Hertz-Mindlin contact model of two types of grains as the initial modulus for a soft-sand model and a stiff-sand model. By using these rock physics models, we examine the relationship between elastic modulus and porosity in laboratory and logging data and link rock-physics properties to greensand diagenesis. Calculated velocity for mixtures of quartz and glauconite from the Hert...