Test 1 Geology of NW-Europe AESB1230

March 11th 2021, 16:00-17:00, online

1. Give an overview of the main periods of the Paleo-, Meso- en Cenozoic,

including their rough ages (1 point).

The main periods means: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous

and Permian for the Paleozoic, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous for the Mesozoic,
and the Paleogene, Neogene and Quarternary for the Cenozoic. You can look up
the ages in my slides or the internet. I was not after the deformation events here..

2. ‘The present is the key to the past’ is one of the basic principles in geology.
A) Who formulated this principle, and what did he mean with this? B) Are
there areas, situations or ages where this principle is not true, and why is
that? (2 points)

James Hutton formulated this principle, calling it Uniformitarianism, and what he

meant was that all the processes that we see occurring nowadays in nature, will
also have occurred in the past, and thus we can explain the things we see in rocks
based on these processes.
This works fine for most of the geology worldwide, but we run into problems with
this in the Archean, where we find things like Banded Iron Formations and
Komatiite volcanic rocks, that are not being formed anywhere on Earth at this
moment as far as we know, and we also see structures (Granite-Greenstone
Terrains) from this age of which we have no modern equivalent, so clearly, Earth
worked differently is those days… It has probably to do with an Earth that was a
lot warmer than it is now (volcanics, structures) and the fact that in the Archean
there was no oxygen in the atmosphere, so Fe could go into solution. Once the
atmosphere and oceans started to become oxygenated, the FE was deposited in
the BIF’s. So there are periods for which the principle does not hold true.
 3. A sandstone has an angle of internal friction of 24 degrees. A) What dip
angle do you expect normal faults to have in this sandstone? B) Explain how
you have obtained this answer. (2 points)

The figure above shows that in this case, the

angle between sigma 1 and the normal
stress is 57 degrees, and thus the angle
between sigma 1 and the fault plane is 33
degrees. THIS IS NOT the dip of the fault! In
the question I ask for the dip angle of
normal faults. Normal faults occur when
sigma 1 is vertical, so in that case the fault
has a dip angle of 57 degrees.
Not 33 like most of you said.
 4. A large part of Europe has been affected by the Variscan Orogeny.
A) When did this occur?
B) Which continents collided during this orogeny?
C) What is the main orientation of the fold axes of the folds that date
from this orogeny?
D) On the map (see next page), mark the entire area of Europe that
was affected by the Variscan orogeny as far as you know.
E) Name at least three regions where we can see rocks at the surface
that show evidence of this orogeny, and give a brief description of
their geology (like “horizontal Mesozoic sediments” or “E-W folded
Paleozoic extrusive rocks” or similar), mark them on the map as well.
(4 points)

a. The Variscan Orogeny started in the Devonian in southern Europe, and in the
Late Carboniferous in the North. It ended roughly at the start of the Permian.
b. During ths orogeny, Gondwana and Laurasia collided.
c. If you look at the geologic map of Europe, you see that the orientation of the
foldaxes varies slightly, from almost perfectly EW in the west (Armorica,
Ardennes) turning to SSW –NNE in the East (Eifel/Rheinisches Schiefergebirge,
Harz)
d. Roughly everything south of the line Boulogne-Brussels-Maastricht-Berlin was
involved in this orogeny, see map.
e. There are several:
- Massif Armoricain: folded metamorphic rocks with some intrusions
- Ardennes: folded and broken sediments (this includes Luxembourg)
- Rheinisches Sch.Geb./Eifel: folded Devonian slates, with some recent
volcanics
- Harz: folded sediments and granite intrusions
- Erzgebirge: Metamorphic rocks and granite intrusions
- Vosges/Black Forest: metamorphic rocks and granites
- Massif Central, Alps, Pyrenees: ditto

I was surprised that a good number of you could not name a single region,
what was the cause of that??
-
 5. Fractures in rock can form in different ways.
A) Name at least three ways in which fractures form, and explain how/why
they form, and what orientations they will have, relative to either the
stress field or to other structures.

Cooling, in volcanic rocks: rock wants to shrink with cooling but is already solid.
gives columnar jointing, with fractures perpendicular to the outside/cooling
surface
Uplift: due to the release of overburden pressure rocks can expand, often parallel
to surface
Regional stress: fractures parallel to the largest regional stress and perpendicular
to the smallest
Fault related: due to stress variations along faults, especially at fault tips.
Generally two directions: extensional fractures parallel to fault, shear fractures at
angle of 60 degrees to fault
Fold related: due to stress variations on folded rock body: huge range of
possibilities: extensional fractures parallel to fold axis on outside of folds, shear
fractures in core of folds and in flanks, but many orientations possible.

Many of you talked about extensional, hybrid and shear fractures, but those are
types of fractures, not how they form
B) In general, fractures are nice to have in a reservoir, but sometimes they
can cause problems as well. What are the positive aspects of fractures,
and what can be some of the problems? (2 points)

Positive: extra porosity, and often excellent permeability. May even be all the
porosity and permeability in non-porous rocks like granites. May give excellent
production rates. Hydraulic fracturing (‘fraccing’) creates fractures to enhance
porosity.
Negative: cemented fractures can block permeability, fractures can lead to early
water breakthrough, leaving hydrocarbons stuck in matrix, poor core recovery,
danger of large mudlosses, erratic production rates, to name a few.