Hydrocarbon maturation in aureoles around sill intrusions in organic-rich sedimentary basins

We have recently completed an extensive five-year academic/industry research project on the geodynamic and petroleum implications of sill intrusions in sedimentary basins. A major achievement of this project was the development of a new hypothesis on the effect of sill emplacement on global climate change. We claim that metamorphic reactions in organic rich shales around magmatic sill intrusions may lead to rapid (100?s of years) formation of large volumes of greenhouse gases that were almost instantaneou sly released to the atmosphere through the formation of hydrothermal vent complexes. However, the metamorphic processes leading to the formation of gas is poorly constrained. In this project, we will use a new dataset on contact aureoles around thick sill intrusions to quantify how gas is produced in aureoles, the volumes, and how the organic and inorganic parts are linked. Thus the project will ultimately produce results that can be applied to various types of sedimentary basin setting to evaluate the ro le of magmatic intrusions in maturing organic material and the fate of the produced gas.