Identification of hydrovolcanism and its significance for hydrocarbon reservoir assessment: A review

Abstract

Abstract Investigations of modern volcanic eruptions have demonstrated that ancient volcanic eruptions widely involved water, which was thus named as hydrovolcanic eruptions. Hydrovolcanisms are distinctive in many aspects, such as dynamics, eruptive pattern, texture and structure of rock, and vesicularity. First, normal sediments covered directly by volcanic rocks are the indicators of eruption environments. In addition, microfeatures, special structures, lithofacies or facies associations, and geochemical index of volcanic rocks can also provide significant evidences. Moreover, perlitic texture, quenching fragmentation, surface feature, cementation type, vesicularity, and pillow structure, parallel bedding, large-scale low-angle cross-bedding, antidune cross-bedding of pyroclast are keys to indicating hydrovolcanisms. Clearly, these marks are not equally reliable for identifying eruption environments, and most of them are effective and convincible in limited applications only. For explosive eruptions, the most dependable identification marks include quenching textures, vesicularity in pyroclasts and special large-scale cross-bedding. However, for effusive eruptions, useful indicators mainly include pillow structure, peperite and facies associations. Condensation rate of magma, exsolution of volatile affected by eruptive settings and magma−water interaction, and quenching in hydrovolcanisms have an influence on formation and scale of primary pores, fractures and their evolution during diagenetic stage. Therefore, this review provides systematic identification marks for ancient hydrovolcanisms, and promotes understanding of the influence of eruptive environments on hydrocarbon reservoirs of volcanic rocks in oil−gas bearing sedimentary basins.

Keywords

• Hydrovolcanism
• Volcanic reservoir
• Eruption environment
• Hydrocarbon reservoir
• Oil−gas bearing sedimentary basin