The paleo heat flow contents in vitrinite reflectance observations
Wangen, M.
,
Throndsen, T.
,
Halvorsen, G.
Mathematical geology, Vol. 39, no. 5, 491-511
- Publ. year
- 2007
- Publ. type
- article
- Abstract
- The heat flow content in vitrinite reflectance (VR) observations is studied based on a simple model of burial at a constant rate. The model is made dimensionless, and it has just one parameter except for the paleo heat flow. The question of existence and uniqueness of a solution is studied, and there exist in general no paleo heat flow that will reproduce a given VR-depth curve. But a solution is unique if it exists. A computed VR-depth function is shown to be smooth, even for piecewise constant heat flow histories. The paleo heat flow can be obtained from a VR-depth function after two times with derivations. It is also shown how the present day thermal gradient can be obtained by derivation of a VR-depth representation. The one-parameter model allows for approximate expressions for the optimal paleo heat flow as a step function. The results obtained from the one-parameter model is also compared with similar results from a real case study from the North Sea using a state-of-the-art basin simulator. © International Association for Mathematical Geology 2007
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