Staff Profiles

Mr Timothy Watton, Bsc Hons (First Class), University of Birmingham

Ph.D. Student in the Department of Earth Sciences

Room number: Open Plan Area

Contact Mr Timothy Watton (email at t.j.watton@durham.ac.uk)

Project details

“Reservoir or seal; Porosity and permeability and rock properties in Hyaloclastites and associated Volcaniclastic facies”

Supervised by Dr. Richard Brown, Dr. D. A. Jerram, Dr. T. Thordarson (University of Edinburgh), Dr. N. DePaola and Prof. R. Davies.

Research Description

My research is focused around field examples of variations in hyaloclastite architecture in different environmental settings for example lava entering a standing body of water vs. hyaloclastite material flanking an emergent volcanic system. A clear outcome of this investigation is both uplift and subsidence plays a large role in facies type and distribution. Variation occurs due to inherent instabilities on volcanic flanks promoting collapse and reworking of previously deposited material.

Subsequently I have been considering how lava enters large bodies of water. Lava tube development in the lava front has the potential to divert large percentages of the initial flow. This also provides points sources for lava entry. Changing point sources can lead to changes in the locus of sedimentation and the hence chaotic facies distributions. Hence we are challenging the often simplistic view of hyaloclastite progradation and clinoform development. This has important implications for the West of Shetland arena where hyaloclastite deposits do not necessarily form well behaved clinoform packages.

Future work will concentrate on facies specific hyaloclastite rock properties such as porosity/permeability studies to determine what role hyaloclastite deposits play in a petroleum system. These can be linked to pterophysical well log responses. Parameters that lead to pore space reduction such as the formation of clay’s and authegenic minerals and both shear and compressive strength estimates are often facies dependant. This may be an initial depositional effect or a number of post depositional changes.

To investigate these changes we need to consider not only samples from field examples but also examples that have undergone changes at several kilometres depth. For this we will be using core data from the Hawaiian Deep Sea Drilling Project Collection. By sampling this core for rock property analysis we hope to assess the diagenetic effects upon deep burial. If we can relate geophysical log data to these analysis a clear understanding of hyaloclastite log response may be determined. This has important implications for the Faroe-Shetland Basin where often 1-3km of hyaloclastite material can have large ranges in log responses (such as the Statoil owed Brugden well or LOPRA-1). Our initial field work will hopefully tie these log responses to individual facies variations and build up a picture of deposition as well as their role in a petroleum system.

Internship Details

During September to December 2010 DONG UK hosted me and another PhD from Durham University both of which are working on the geology of volcanic margins. The project objective was to present an integrated study based on the semi-regional assessment of the volcanic and volcaniclastic intervals in the Faroe-Shetland Basin from seismic and well log data.

My project was defining volcaniclastic lithologies and possible siliciclastic and volcaniclastic separation in log responses. This was done through “traditional” comparison of well log responses, principal component analysis, core visits, ditch cutting examples and Full-bore Micro Imaging (FMI). The project deliverable was a report and presentation to other industry partners in the Rosebank and Cambo fields. This report may be written into an academic paper in the future.

The report is property of DONG Energy E&P, UK and interested parties should seek to contact Steve Cannon (steca@dongenergy.co.uk)

Academic Presentations/Posters

Watton T.J, D. A. Jerram, T. Thordarson, N. De Paola & R. J. Davies. 2010 Understanding hyaloclastites and associated volcaniclastic facies; onshore examples from Iceland. Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group (VMSG) Annual Meeting. Glasgow, UK, POSTER PRESENTATION

Watton T.J, D. A. Jerram, T. Thordarson, N. De Paola & R. J. Davies. 2010. Reservoir or Seal? Understanding Hyaloclastite Deposits in the Context of Petroleum Geoscience. PETEX 2010, Earls Court, London, UK. POSTER PRESENTATION (Winner of 3rd place prize PETEX research collaboration conference).

Watton T.J, D. A. Jerram, T. Thordarson, N. De Paola & R. J. Davies. 2011. A New Understanding of the Depositional Processes in Lava Deltas. Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group (VMSG) Annual Meeting. Cambridge, UK. ORAL PRESENTATION

Industry Contributions

Watton T.J, D. A. Jerram, T. Thordarson, N. De Paola & R. J. Davies. 2010. Reservoir or seal? Porosity, permeability and rock properties in hyaloclastites and associated volcaniclastic facies. Updated. VMRC (Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group) Annual Meeting, Skye, Scotland)
Watton T.J. FMI and Well Log Integration : Examples from the Cambo and Rosebank Fields. VMRC (Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group) Meeting, Statoil London office.

Journal Papers (In prep/Submitted.)

Submitted. Watton T.J, D. A. Jerram, T. Thordarson & R. J. Davies. Three dimensional Lithofacies Variation in Hyaloclastite Deposits. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

Submitted. Watton T.J, S. Cannon and R. Brown. Formation Micro Imaging Identification of Basaltic Lithofacies: Examples from the Faroe-Shetland Basin. Petroleum Geoscience.

In prep. Watton T.J, Petrophysical and Petrological Properties of Hyaloclastite Deposits: Examples from the Hawaiian Scientific Drilling Project (HSDP) Phase II.

In prep. Watton T.J, D. A. Jerram, T. Thordarson, N. De Paola & R. J. Davies. 2011. Factors affecting the seal potential of hyaloclastite deposits; are all hyaloclastite deposits impermeable?