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Reflectance spectroscopic mapping of diagenetic heterogeneities and fluid-flow pathways in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone

¹ Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 135 S. 1460 E., Salt Lake City, Utah 84112; present address: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907; bbowen{at}purdue.edu
² Amber Scientific Inc., 8 B St. #1, Ashland, Oregon 97520; present address: Riverside Research Institute, 2681 Commons Blvd., Beavercreek, Ohio 45431
³ Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 135 S. 1460 E., Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
⁴ Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 135 S. 1460 E., Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

Brenda Beitler Bowen is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Central Michigan University studying fluid-sediment interactions in acid saline systems. She will begin as assistant professor of earth sciences at Purdue University in the fall of 2007. She earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her Ph.D. at the University of Utah, studying the diagenesis of the Navajo Sandstone.

Brigette A. Martini is an independent remote sensing and geological consultant in Ashland, Oregon, and a part-time researcher for Riverside Research Institute. She received her B.S. degree (1997) from the University of Arizona, emphasizing structure and tectonics, and her Ph.D. (2002) from the University of California, Santa Cruz, emphasizing volcano-tectonics and hyperspectral imaging. She spent the last three years in Australia working for HyVista Corporation as a hyperspectral analyst and geologist.

Marjorie A. Chan is a professor of geology and department chair at the University of Utah. She received her B.S. degree from the University of California, Davis, and her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her recent and current research focuses on Mesozoic sedimentology and stratigraphy on the Colorado Plateau, with applications to eolian reservoirs and terrestrial iron oxide concretion analogs to Mars.

William T. Parry is a professor emeritus of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah. He was formerly an associate professor of geosciences at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees and his Ph.D. in geological engineering from the University of Utah. His research interests are geochemistry and mineralogy related to faults and ore deposits.

Multiple episodes of fluids migrating through the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone have resulted in abundant and spatially variable diagenetic mineral changes. Depending on fluid chemistry, flow events have produced or removed varying amounts of iron oxides, clays, and carbonates with distinctive spectral reflectance signatures that can be used to map spatial heterogeneities in diagenetic mineralogy and paleofluid-migration pathways (including hydrocarbons and groundwaters). Field and laboratory reflectance spectroscopy shows that the common diagenetic minerals in the Navajo Sandstone have diagnostic visible, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared spectral characteristics in the 0.35–2.5-µm range. Comparisons of (1) geochemical data, (2) in-situ reflectance spectroscopy, and (3) airborne imaging spectroscopy for zones of variably altered Navajo Sandstone in southern Utah show that the minerals within alteration facies have distinctive spectral signatures. Reflectance spectroscopic mapping provides a method for evaluating the effects of diagenesis and fluids in this well-exposed reservoir sandstone. Reservoir heterogeneity in many eolian sandstones is largely controlled by diagenetic processes that can be difficult to evaluate on outcrop to reservoir scales (approximately tens to hundreds of meters to several kilometers). Imaging spectroscopy allows for the evaluation of mineralogy variations on these scales. The patterns of authigenic iron oxide, clay, and carbonate removal and precipitation trace the paths of different episodes of fluid flow and sandstone alteration. Mineral variations occur as kilometer-scale reaction fronts related to structural fluid conduits and as 100-m (330-ft)-scale changes that follow stratigraphy. These spectroscopic techniques provide important tools for reservoir evaluation, and the patterns observed serve as an analog to understanding regional diagenetic patterns in other subsurface eolian reservoirs.

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