New book: Physical principles of sedimentary basin analysis

Water, wind and freezing erodes the surface of the Earth. A large part of this material becomes deposited as thick sedimentary layers at the base of oceans and lakes. These layers are called sedimentary basins since they fill in depressions on the Earth's surface. The layers may also be rich in organic material, for instance by plankton, and that is why oil and gas are found in sedimentary basins.

The book «Physical principles of sedimentary basin analysis» deals with the modelling of sedimentary basins – with other words, how we can compute what happens in them. For example, it is models that predict the temperature in a layer through the geohistory, or why some reservoirs have high fluid pressure, when other reservoirs do not. Some models are on a large length scale (several hundred meters) and deal with the formation sedimentary basins, and other models are concerned with what happens at a pore scale (less than 1 mm).

We have been doing this kind of modelling at IFE since the mid-eighties. Two basin simulators have been developed (BAS and MIG3D), which are used in prospect evaluation for the oil industry. These simulation tools have also been central in several KMB-projects IFE has been involved in. The projects have been funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the oil industry.

The book is a result of a course offered by UNIK (an affiliate of the University of Oslo at Kjeller) during the years 1997 to 2003. It began as a handwritten compendium, and it was later expanded and rewritten for book publication.

The book is available here: www.amazon.com