Large-scale mass transfers related to pressure solution creep-faulting interactions in mudstones: Driving processes and impact of lithification degree

• Pressure solution creep–faulting interactions induce large-scale mass transfers.
• They induce modifications in petrophysical properties and nannofacies of mudstones.
• Large-scale mass transfers are caused by advective mass transport.
• They also result from large-scale diffusive mass transport.
• The lithification degree of mudstones plays a key role in large-scale mass transfers.

Where normal faulting is associated with PSC (Pressure Solution Creep), it generates evolutions in petrophysical properties of mudstones like chalk: decrease in reservoir qualities and transport properties in the deformed zones adjacent to the fault plane and increase (or no change) in reservoir qualities and transport properties in the outermost deformed zones. These modifications result from large-scale mass transfers linked to a transport of solutes through the pore space over distances of several grains within decimeter or larger zones (open systems at the grain scale). In the lithified mudstones, these large-scale mass transfers consist in a mass redistribution from the outermost deformed zones (mass and volume loss) to the deformed zones adjacent to the fault planes (mass gain). In the weakly lithified mudstones, the mass redistribution occurs in an opposite direction. A deeper understanding of these large-scale mass redistributions is essential because the PSC–faulting interactions and the associated petrophysical modifications can be a key topic in several geological applications (oil and gas migration and entrapment in mudstone reservoirs, anthropogenic waste storage, carbon dioxyde geosequestration). The results of two studies about mass transfers and volume changes induced by natural fault systems in “white chalk” allowed to point out that two driving processes control the large-scale mass transfers during PSC–faulting interactions: the advective mass transport related to pore fluid flows and the large-scale diffusive mass transport linked to chemical potential gradients. The present contribution also highlights that the lithification degree of the host material plays a key role in the large-scale mass transfers related to PSC–faulting interactions by controlling (1) the spatial distribution of voids induced by the deformation, (2) the particle displacement on the fault plane and in the adjacent zones and (3) the petrophysical properties of the host material in some zones.