English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Subsurface sandstone reservoirs sealed by overlying, low-permeability layersprovide capacity for long-term sequestration of anthropogenic waste. Leakagecan occur if reservoir pressures rise sufficiently to fracture the seal. Suchpressures can be generated within the reservoir by vigorous injection of wasteor, over thousands of years, by natural processes. In either case, the preciserole of intercalated mudstones in the long-term evolution of reservoir pressureremains unclear; these layers have variously been viewed as seals, as pressuresinks or as pressure sources. Here, we use the geological record of episodicfluid venting in the Levant Basin to provide striking evidence for thepressure-source hypothesis. We use a Bayesian framework to combine recentlypublished venting data, which record critical subsurface pressures since$\sim$2 Ma, with a stochastic model of pressure evolution to infer apressure-recharge rate of $\sim$30 MPa/Myr. To explain this large rate, wequantify and compare a range of candidate mechanisms. We find that poroelasticpressure diffusion from mudstones provides the most plausible explanation forthese observations, amplifying the $\sim$1 MPa/Myr recharge caused by tectoniccompression. Since pressurised mudstones are ubiquitous in sedimentary basins,pressure diffusion from mudstones is likely to promote seal failure globally.

Episodic fluid venting from sedimentary basins fuelled by pressurised mudstones