Estudio de la fracturación en el anticlinal de Sant Corneli en el Pirineo Catalán

A fracture study was undertaken in the Sant Corneli anticline of the Spanish Pyrenees in order to decipher the genetic relationship between folding; faulting and fracture development. A deeper understanding ot the mechanical significance of fractures and their development is required to make predictions as to the distribution of fractures in subsurface reservoirs. The fracture study was conducted mostly in Upper Cretaceous limestones and calcarenites. Detailed field surveys of outcrop scale fractures on selected exposures were used to characterize the fracture pattern within the San Corneli anticline. The anticline is a S verging; W-plunging fault-propagation fold that formed above the Boixols thrust fault in the Central Pyrenees. In the study area, the Sant Corneli anticline measures 3 km across and is characterized by a steeply-dipping to vertical south limb and a gently-dipping north limb. The field example will be used to predict fracture distribution and build a 3D fracture model in conjunction with a 3D structural model. The modeling methodology will then be applied to subsurface examples in order to predict fracture distribution at depth in reservoir units in similar fault-propagation fold geometries.