PETROLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF MAYSAN
ENGINEERING COLLGE
PTROLEUM PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
• PETROLOGY
• The study of rocks is termed petrology. It is often
subdivided into three areas, although in practice
they overlap:
• Field studies which involve the study of the field
relations of rock types, their occurrence and
their nature as seen in natural situations.
• Petrography which is the study of the chemical,
mineralogical and textural characteristics of
rocks.
• Petrogenesis which is the study of the origin of
rocks.
 Igneous Rocks
• Igneous rocks are those rocks formed by crystallization (or
solidification in the case of glasses) of a melt, this molten rock
material being called magma. Igneous rocks are records of the
thermal history of the Earth. A study of the mineral composition
and textures of igneous rocks can reveal how the magma became
part of the solid crust.
• Two types of environment are available for the solidification
Extrusive or volcanic rocks are formed by the solidification of the
magma, in this case termed a lava, after being extruded onto the
Earth's surface.

Intrusive rocks are formed by the solidification of the magma below

the Earth's surface, the magma being said to intrude the surrounding
country rock. Intrusive rocks can only be seen at the Earth's surface
when the originally overlying rocks have been worn away by erosion.
• Crystallization of a Magma
Magma is molten silicate material, including early-formed crystals and dissolved gases; it is therefore a
complex mixture of liquid, solid and gas.
The principal elements of magma are oxygen, silicon, aluminum, calcium, sodium, potassium, iron and
magnesium.
Silica (SiO2) is the principal constituent, comprising from 37 to 75% of a magma.
Two constituents, silica and water, largely control the properties of a magma.
Dissolved gases can constitute up to 14% by volume of a magma and 90% of the gas emitted from
volcanoes is water and carbon dioxide.
Rock Textures
The texture of a rock refers to the size, shape and arrangement of its constituent mineral grains. This
characteristic of the rock is separate and distinct from its composition.
Glassy rocks in which there are no crystals, even under the microscope.
They develop when molten rock material is rapidly cooled
Aphanitic rocks which are fine-grained with crystals too small to be seen without a microscope.
Phaneritic rocks which are coarse-grained with crystals large enough to be seen with the naked eye.
Pegmatitic rocks are extremely coarse-grained with very large crystals.
Porphyritic rocks contain crystals of two different sizes. The larger, well-formed crystals are termed
phenocrysts while the smaller crystals constitute the matrix or groundmass.
• Igneous Rock Classification
• Igneous rocks are classified on the basis of texture and
composition. Igneous rocks that cooled below the
surface of the Earth are called intrusive and those that
cooled at or on the surface are called extrusive. The
chemical character of the magma essentially controls
its physical properties and the mineralogical
composition of the resultant igneous rock. The
composition provides insight into the nature and origin
of the magma. Igneous rocks are classified on the basis
of the relative proportions of their silicate minerals
(quartz, feldspars, muscovite and biotite micas,
amphiboles, pyroxenes and olivine) based on
mineralogical analyses. While there are an infinite
number of variations in igneous rocks, it is possible to
recognize two broad magma types are distinguishable:
 Basaltic or mafic magmas contain about 50% SiO2 and have temperatures ranging
from 900 to 1200C.
Granitic or felsic magmas contain about 60 to 70% SiO2 and generally have
temperatures lower than 800C.
Distribution of Volcanic Activity Areas
The 500 to 600 active volcanoes of the Earth are not randomly distributed but are confined to
certain areas, often linear belts separated by intervening inactive regions. Within volcanically active areas,
volcanic products show broad regional variations in chemical composition which may be traced back to
variations in the character of the parent magma.
• Plate Tectonic
The surface of the Earth is obviously irregular but an analysis of the surface reveals certain characteristics:
Really high mountains and really deep oceans are relatively scarce.
A large proportion of the surface is located about sea level and consequently wide inundations of the land or
extensive withdrawals of the sea may result from relatively slight changes in sea level or slight deformation of the
Earth.
Mountain Chains
A relief map of the Earth shows that high mountains tend to occur in linear chains, such as the Alps,
Himalayas, Andes and Rockies. Most of these mountain chains are fold mountains or orogenic belts
in which intense deformation has occurred, mainly in the last 120 million years, followed by rapid
uplift in the last 25 million years. Many parts of these mountain ranges are still rising and are active
earthquake and volcanic zones. There are also moderately high, largely earthquake-free mountain
ranges, such as the Scottish Highlands, Appalachians and the Urals, that are older fold mountains,
deformed between 250 and 500 million years ago but uplifted and greatly eroded. Finally there are
extensive flat regions, such as the Great Plains of North America, the Russian Steppe and the deserts
of North Africa and Australia. These great areas are known as continental shields and platforms. The
continental shields consist of an assemblage of cratons and ancient orogens (>700 Ma old), often
termed basement, that has reached isostatic equilibrium and has little or no covering rocks. That
part of a continental shield that is covered by a thin layer of flat-lying or gently dipping sediments is
termed a stable platform.
Continental Margins
Seaward of the present coastline, and still part of the continent, lie submerged continental margins
comprising gently sloping continental shelves of variable width (0->100 km).When the continental
shelf reaches a depth of about 150-175 m, the gradient becomes much steeper in the region of the
continental slope. This descends down to the abyssal plains which have an average depth of about
4000 m. The continental slope marks the true edge of the continental crust.
Island Arcs and Oceanic Trenches
Island arcs are curved chains of volcanic islands which border some
continental regions; for example, the Celebes- Philippines-Taiwan-Japan-
Kamchatka-Aleutians chain. On the seaward side of these arcs are usually
very deep, furrow-like oceanic trenches hundreds of kilometers in length and
several kilometers wide. Seismic studies show that many earthquakes are
closely associated with these ocean trenches.
Mid-Oceanic Ridges
A submarine mountain range is commonly found on ocean floors. This is
termed a mid-ocean ridge
and can be as much as 4 km above the ocean floor and may be up to 4000 km
wide. The mid-ocean
ridges form a nearly continuous chain over 40,000 km long.
Earthquakes
The rocks of the outer parts of the Earth are traversed by many faults and it is movements on these
which cause earthquakes. When an earthquake occurs, earthquake shocks or seismic waves radiate out
in all directions from the earthquake center and may be recorded by instruments called seismographs.
Three kinds of seismic waves are distinguished:
P or compressional waves consist of longitudinal vibrations which make particles oscillate in the
direction in which the waves are propagated.
S or shear waves are transverse vibrations which cause particles to vibrate at right angles to the
direction in which the waves are propagated.
L or surface waves are waves of long period which travel around the periphery of the Earth.
P and S waves are termed body waves because they have the capacity to travel through the body of
the Earth, while L waves are called surface waves because they are restricted to the Earth's surface.
Body waves can be both reflected and refracted at contacts between materials of different densities
within the Earth.

Distribution of Earthquakes
Although no part of the Earth's surface is exempt from earthquakes, several well-defined seismic belts
are subject to frequent earthquake shocks. Of these the most obvious are the circum-Pacific belt, along
which 80% of all earthquakes occur, and Mediterranean-Himalayan belt, which accounts for a further
15%.
The place where energy is first released to cause an earthquake is called the
earthquake focus. An earthquake focus lies at some depth below the Earth's
surface. It is more convenient sometimes to identify the site of an earthquake from
the epicentre, which is the point on the Earth's surface that lies vertically above the
focus.
Plate Tectonics
Geologists have long recognized that the Earth has its own source of internal energy that is
manifested by earthquakes, volcanic activity and folded mountain belts (orogeny).
The basic elements of the Plate Tectonic Theory are deceptively simple. The lithosphere (= crust and
uppermost mantle) is behaves as a rigid solid and is divided into a number of segments or plates.
These plates rest on and are subject to movements within the underlying semi-molten and
mechanically plastic asthenosphere. The Earth's internal heat generates convection currents and
plastic flow within the asthenosphere.
Upward-converging convection currents may cause upward arching of the lithosphere and zonal con-
centration of heat at the surface. Such zones fracture, pull apart and become sites of volcanism. The
latter introduces new rock to the surface. Lateral flow of the asthenosphere may, in turn, drag
segments of the lithosphere, the plates. outward from these zones of rifting. The heat sources are
apparently not evenly distributed within the mantle nor are they of equal magnitude. Consequently,
the sizes and geometries of the convection cells are variable. T his results in non-uniform tectonic
patterns on a global scale, in which individual plates are of different sizes and are moving at different
rates. In general, zones of upward-converging convection are sites of mafic (or Mg/Fe-rich magmas)
volcanism, which reflect the sources of magma derived from the mantle. Such volcanic activity leads
to the generation of new crust and commonly occurs in oceanic settings. Up-arching of the crust
and accumulation of lava form a symmetric mid-ocean ridge and central rift. Lateral flow away from
the central rift, termed sea-floor spreading, has been measured to a maximum of about 16 cm/year
along the East Pacific Rise.