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reservoir limits" can be determined for each Tertiary basin, represented by the depth at which the porosity . may be expected to be reduced to, say, 15 percent. An allied factor influencing the r ate of porosity 10S5 with depth is the geothermal gradient (se e Seco 17.8). In clastic sequences, at least, higher geotherrnal gradients retard the rate of loss of both porosity and permeability (Fig.11.6).

11.1.4 Comp action and {he p orosities o/ shales

Tbe behavior of clay rocks under cornpaction is quite different from that of sandstones. There are two interdependent reasons for the difference. The first s the high ntrinsic porosity o freshly deposired clays (Sec. 11.1.3); only about 50 perce nt of their total initial volumeactually consists of solids. CJay minerais are phyllosilicates. They tend lO acquire parallel disposition of their.platelets under compaction, but initially the high water content causes the platelets to adopt a "house of car ds" arrangernent, with weak parallelisrn. The second reason for the cornpactibility of clay rocks is thar not al! tbeir initial water content is held in the pore spaces. 118

In Chapter 15, clay mineralogy is discussed in greater detail. Here we need rnerely observe that some clays as originally deposited conrain high proportioris of expondable clay, especiaIJy smectite , and these clays coniain "bound" water, between the layers of their crvstal lato tices, in addition to the water in their pores (sce Fig, 15.6). As both portions of the water content of expandable clays are expelled under increasing burial, the c1ay minerals change to other , nonexpandable species having much lower intrinsic porosiry (see Fig. 15.7). According ro J ames Mornper . the diarneters of typical clayrock pores range rom 1 to::; nrn. Pores of this size do not have rnuch space to lose by cornpaction, but ]0-30 percent of lotal clay porosity consists of ver)' rnuch 1arger

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pores , frorn 0.05 lo 20 urn in diarnet er. Ir is these larger pores that hold most of the initial fluid coruent of rhe
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(11.4)

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