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1 Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2115; present address: U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road MS 910, Menlo Park, California 94025; bgrahamwall{at}usgs.gov
2 Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, Houston, Texas 77046
3 Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation of Albania, Tirana, Albania
4 Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2115
Brita received her B.S. degree in geology from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in geology from Stanford University. She is a Mendenhall postdoctoral fellow (U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park) investigating hydrothermal fluid flow along fractured ash-flow tuff in the Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. Her research interests involve the evolution of fractures and faults and their resulting flow pathways and barriers.
Radu has been a geologist with Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation (Oxy) since 2000, working on various exploration and production projects from California to Albania. Before Oxy, he was a postdoctoral researcher with the Rock Fracture Project at Stanford University, where he performed outcrop-based studies of fracture control on fluid flow. He received a Ph.D. in geology from Eberhard-Karls Universität in Tübingen (Germany) in 1998 and, in 1994, received an M.Sc. degree in geology and geophysics from Babe
-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania.
Agim Mesonjesi graduated from the University of Tirana with specialization in petroleum geology in 1981. During 1981–1984, he worked as a well-site geologist in several deep oil and gas exploratory wells drilled in Albania. During 1984–1989, he was employed by the Geological Institute of Oil and Gas in Albania, where he performed regional geological and sedimentological studies in Albania. Since 1998, he has been employed by Occidental of Albania, an entity of Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Atilla received his B.S. degree in geology from Istanbul Technical University (Turkey) and both his M.S. degree and his Ph.D. in geology from Stanford University. He is a research professor of structural geology and geomechanics and codirector of the Rock Fracture Project at Stanford University. His research interest includes fracturing and faulting of rocks and fluid flow in fractured and faulted media, with application to hydrocarbon migration, entrapment, and recovery.
The process of fracture and fault formation in carbonates of the Albanides fold-thrust belt has been systematically documented using hierarchical development of structural elements from hand sample, outcrop, and geologic-map scales. The function of fractures and faults in fluid migration was elucidated using calcite cement and bitumen in these structures as a paleoflow indicator. Two prefolding pressure-solution and vein assemblages were identified: an overburden assemblage and a remote tectonic stress assemblage. Sheared layer-parallel pressure-solution surfaces of the overburden assemblage define mechanical layers. Shearing of mechanical layers associated with folding resulted in the formation of a series of folding assemblage fractures at different orientations, depending on the slip direction of individual mechanical layers. Prefolding- and folding-related fracture assemblages together formed fragmentation zones in mechanical layers and are the sites of incipient fault localization. Further deformation along these sites was accommodated by rotation and translation of fragmented rock, which formed breccia and facilitated fault offset across multiple mechanical layers. Strike-slip faults formed by this process are organized in two sets in an apparent conjugate pattern. Calcite cement and bitumen that accumulated along fractures and faults are evidence of localized fluid flow along fault zones. By systematic identification of fractures and faults, their evolution, and their fluid and bitumen contents, along with subsurface core and well-log data, we identify northeast-southwest–trending strike-slip faults and the associated structures as dominant fluid pathways in the Albanides fold-thrust belt.
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