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SPE/DOE Petroleum Engineers ‘ot gnergy SPE/DOE 10798 Glacial Loading: A Cause of Natural Fracturing and a Control of the Present Stress State in Regions of High Devonian Shale Gas Production by James A. Clark, Sandia National Laboratories ‘Cony 1082, Society of Pavoloum Engineers of AME he pape was presented lhe SPEIDOE Unconventional Gas Recovery Sympesiun othe Soi of Perlaun Engineered in Ptsburgh PE rae saan ye ar, Pmien apy asad an tet rt mre an 30 aT ‘cbserved seavlevel change along the casters U.S coastline during the past 5000 years (Figure 1). Dur~ Te 9 Likely that foe sheets contributed signift~ | ing this period the voluse of yster dn the cceais cantly to natural fracturing and hence gas production | regained essenttally constant,® 40 that the observed Sn low perseability Devootan shale. The large fce | sea-level rise, depicted in Figure 1, equals the ver- sheet of the last ice age caused considerable deflec~ | tical deforsation of the earth's surface, The 2 as/ye Eton of the Lithosphere. Predicted horizontal rate of sinking of the east coast shova in Figure 1 {8 tensonal stresses south of the glectal Inte result | Conparable to the vertical rates of ovemsat encoun~ ing from this crustal flering execed the Eenotle tered in the aost highly tectonic and seisaically strength of Devonian shale. Clactally induced frac~ | getive regione of the vorld (erg. New Culnea). Fur~ turing 1s therefore expected in these regions which | thermore the maximum anount of subsidence occurs correspond with regions of Matorical gas production. | beyond the Limit of glaciation 1a southern New Jersey ‘The north-south variation {n observed stress ratios is | and Delavare, where mantle naterial flows frow regions also explained by the glactal model. Lineanents end | peripheral to the ice shegt tovacde uplifting, replone fagles will perturb locally the glactally induced fnce under the ice sheet-9:6)/" This observation stresses and, when coupled with the glactal aodel, | ty supported in Figure 2 where the aaxtmun present otter an exploration rattonale. rate of submergence, as {ndleated by tide geuge records, 1s south of the glacial Lait. Glacial Load~ _rRopuertoN ing ts the cause of this differential deformtion because a model of glactal Isostasy, Incorporating @ Te Ae generally agreed that natural fractures are | realistic glacial history and spherical self-gravitat~ cesential for gas production from low permeability ing Maxwell earth model, explains 90Z of the varfance Devonian shales in the eastern U.3. A number of in the sea-level data 1a a Fegion extending from causes for natural fractures have been hypothesized | northera Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.® and these {nelude auch diverse aechanisas as tectonics, Reteorite impacts, glacial loading, uplift dilatancy, These large vertical deflections observed at the fand stratigraphic and diagenetic effects (e.g. Dean | earth's surface do not necessarily iaply that stresses fand Overbey!). No one has seriously considered Large enough to cause fracturing are induced tn the the glactal loading mechanten and so in this study crust. Rigid vertical movement would not cause in- this mechantom 1s analyzed in detail. creased stress. Therefore, the goals of this study fare to calculate the stresses resulting from flemire During the most recent ice age, which ended 1ess_| of the lithosphere caused by glacial loading and to than 10,000 yeare ago, an ice eheet covered the north~ | relate these stresses Co. gas production and explora cern half of North Anetiea and extended as far south as | eton. Ohio, Pennaylvanta, and New York. Glactological recoastructions of the ice sheet indicate that the THE MODEL fee sheet had a maximum thickness over Hudson Bay of 3.5-5.5 km.2s3 This tremendous ce load (40 MPa, ‘The earth is assumed here to be composed of a 5800 pet) upon the earth's gurface caused the 1itho- | fiat, elastic, Lithoapherte plate overlying a viacous sphere to deflect by approxinately one kilometer mantic halfspace. The Lithosphere 1s assuned to be and the underlying viscous mantle to flow. Numerous | 100 km thick and the mantle haa a viscosity of 1022 well-documented paleo-sea-level studies, sumarized | Poise.» For this case the tine~dependent vertical by Walcott,” indieate that after deglaciation the defornation of the earth's surface, u, 1s related to region around Hudson Bay experienced several hundred | the applied load, 0, by! meters of uplift with uplift continuing today at rates | up to 2em/year. More pertinent to this study 1s the a, a References and tllusteatione at end of papers — Where the bars represent Bessel transforned variables.| i para val si here appua_ta- thu GLACIAL LOADING: ‘A CAUSE OF NATURAL PRACTURING SPE 610798 Nouenclature” list, If a load fe applied for 7 years jand then removed, the deformation t years after Load as i= 4, Uf the load, o, is a right circular cylinder com posed of Lee with hetght h and radius R, ). Substitution and application of the taverse Bessel transform ylelds the vertical deforastion (. In practice this integral is not difficult to evaluate numerically because a clips the large wave numbers. ieee cette) x) ~ 158) = psah\ f ito. acts) be + fk " haeawragtan. 9 jucryt) = In polar coordinates with no Ovdependence, the lnorizontal stresses at the surface of the thin elastic tthospherte plate are: sp (au yy au (aay za- lat “Fe sm (1aw #:) sg (14, oe cy saa (tae 8 lAfter (1) 4s substituted into (2) the derivatives are evaluated analytically and the resulting integration 1s perforaed nunerically to yleld the desired stro: Fro theoretical arguments and observations the Jehtckness profiles of ice sheets are essentially jparabolic2s? and have the form hee) = VROEY lwhere L and r are defined in Figure 3. The conatant, A, 18 related to a number of parameters that are not known for the North Anerican ice sheet (e.g. basal [sliding rate, ice sheet tenperature distribution, janow accumulation rate, ete.) and so the maximum hickness of the tee sheet {2 not well constrained. A Inaximim thickness of 3000 m ie suggested by the recent |work of Hughes et al? and that value is used here. Ito approximate this ice-sheet profile, 8 ice discs leith differiog thicknesses and radii are stacked as indicated in Figure 3. Because the problea 1a linear, the effects of each tee disc upon deformation and lstress at a given location (8qs. (1) and (2)] can be lsuperposed upon the effects of the others. Simple laddition therefore reaults in a good approximation ro the deforaation and stress caused by an ice sheet lwith a realistic thickness profile. No attempt ie Jande in this axtsymetric model to represent the {r- regular configuration of the tee-sheet margin. lMoneL. nesuurs The predicted vertical deformation of the earth 3 eimes ts depicted in Figure 4. The curve labeled glacial saxiaun” gives the deflection after the ice ‘Sheet had attained isostatic equiltbriua (T = 100,000 years, t= 0). ‘The ice sheet is then removed nstan~ taneously, and because the mantle is a viscous flutd, the eareh slowly returns to its origins] undeformed state. The curve marked “present” assumes that 10,000 years have elapsed since deglactation (e'* 10,000 years) while the remaining curve indicates the deformation 2000 years after deglaciation (c= 2000 years). Figure 4 agrees qualitatively with observed postglacial deformation of the earth. The earth's surface rises in regions once covered by ice (postglacial isostatic uplift), bat, in general, regions beyond the limit of glaciation subside.” The region of interest for gas exploration Lies within @ few hundred ka of the ce-shect margin and Figure 4 gives a qualitative underetanding of the glactally Induced stresses expected in this region. In boad~ ing @ thin elastic plate (the Lithosphere) the stresses at the surface will be tensional where che curvature 42 convex and compressional vhere the ‘curvature is concave with the magnitude of the {n~ duced stress directly proportional to the snount of curvature. Figure 4 clearly shows that beyond che ice-sheet margin the horizontal stress at the earth's surface will be tensional in contrast to the induced compressional stress within the gargin of the ice sheet. Furthersore the Flexing of the lithosphere beyond the ice-sheet margin is greater than chat within the glacial Limit, suggesting that the absolute magnitude of the horizontal stress 1s Breatest beyond the region once covered by tee. These qualitative observations are confirmed in Figure 5, showing the calculated horizontal stresses im the radial direction. During the glactal maxima hhuge tensional stresses of up to ~20 ¥Pa (-2900 psi) were induced in the lithonphere south of the ice Sheet while horizontal compression of approxinately 10 MPa (1450 pst) resuited just within the ice-sheet margins Previous hypotheses of ice-sheet mechanisms For Fracture creation have only considered the region once covered by ice to be affected in sone vay. The results given here Andteate that the most. pronounced effect, in teras of stresses capable of causing frac~ turing, vas south of the ice-sheet margin. Because the earth has not yet returned to its undeformed state, glactally induced stresses are StIIL likely to extse even though the last remnant of the ice sheet melted 5000 years ago. Figure 5 shows that these stresses could have magnitudes of up to +5. MPa (2725 psi). The calculated tangential stress (Figure 6) follows a pattera similar to the radial stress but the magnitudes are emaller and the effect beyond the ice margin is not nearly as large. For the sake of clarity the previous discussion ignored all other stress-producing nechanisms. How ever, 4 48 well known that overburden weight indices horizontal stress at depth. In the simplest form one ‘tay assume that the horizontal atress at a given depth is directly proportional to the overburden stress and the proportionality factor 19 expirieally known to Iie within 0.4 t0 0.8.10 Recause higher values are usually aacoctated with fine-grained and low permeability rocks @ value of 0.7 18 used here. The ambient stress field, in the absence of glacial Loading, Ls this assuned'to be 0-7 Sy with Sy the vertical stress. The glactally induced stresses are a perturbation on this assuned ambient stress fleld {and can be simply incorporated by algebraic addition. ALL subsequent glactally induced stresses reported in bie paper include this overburden effect. a SPE 10798 JAMES A cuaRK ‘COMPARISON OF PREDICTIONS TO OBSERVATIONS ‘The glactal odel can be tested with extsting stress data, Pressure records from hydraulic frac~ ture stimulations of Devonian shale and adjacent sandstones give alniaus principal stress magnitudes. These data were compiled and reported as stress ratios (uinimum horizontal stress/vertieal stress) by Xonar et al-t! Pigure 7 gives thetr results compared to the region of historical Devonian shale gas production, They observed that low stress ratios, increased gas production and increased Fracture density are correlated. The vartation in stress ratios and the location of high gas productton and fracture density are the data that can be used to Test the proposed glacial aechanism for fracturing. The Mate of glactatton £e also shovn in Figure 7.| Apparently the Lee"sheet sargin had an esbayment aear the Pennsylvania/Ohio border which cannot be repre~ sented by the axially syametric model. Because of the Inherent strength of the lithosphere ir ts Likely that the glacial deformation of the earth will be emoothed across this exbaynent euch that the “effective” glactal, Limit ie indicated in Figure 7. Yore refined odels hich account for {rregular variations of the {ee-sheet| Zargin can be constructed and these could test the ssnumption of an “effective” glacial limit. One teat of the glactal fracturing compartson of predicted stress ratios fron present glacially induced stresses to the observed| stress ratios. For che purposes of the present study, all atress raito data are referred to the “effective Position of the ce sheet and plotted in Figure 8 as @ function of distance perpendicular to this effective glacial Limit. The predicted stress ratios caused by glacial loading and adjusted for the anbient stress ffeld at a depth of 0.9 km (3000 ft) are also shown in Figure 8.” The prediction {s in excellent agreement with the general trend of the observed stress ratto With greatest stress within the Limite of glaciation ‘and reduced stress beyond this Limie.* mechanisn is resulting Another test of the model {e the predicted loca~ tons of regions where Increased fracturing and gas production are likely. Figure 8 shows that the pre~ Aleted stress at the Ue of the glacial marines ie tensional south of the Limit of glaciation despite the 14,5 MPa (2100 psi) horizontal compressive anblent sttess state due to overburden weight. The magnitude of this predicted tensile stress 18 very large (-5.8 MPa, “840 pei), and is greater than the tensile strength of Devonian shale (-2.5 MPa to ~5 MPa “360 psi to -725 psi).!? Thus, it is not a coinci~ dence that the region of greatest tensile stress close~ Ly approximates the region of greatest Devonian shale gas production and fracture density. [APPLICATION 70 GAS Ps {ODUCTION AND EXPLORATION Hydraulic fractures, commonly used to stimlate tight Devonian shale reservoirs, align with the saxizun| Prinetpal horizontal stress. The principal stresses induced by glacial loading will be the radial and cangential stresses. Therefore these stresses will. control hydraulic fracture orientation assuming, of course, that stresses originating fron other causes Wore recent data Tndicate some stress ratios near unity exist in southwestern Pennsylvania. !2 These newer data do not reflect the general trend indica” ted previously and are not explained by this sodal. ‘are not present as well, In Figure 9 the predicted radial stress and tangential stress ¢ cospared, for the present tise, and adjusted for the anblent hort zontal stress at 0-9 km (3000 ft) depth. Wherever the tangential stress exceeds the radial stress, a hydraulic fracture will have an orlentation tangent £0 the Lee-sheet margin; otherwise the hydraulic frac~ ture will be perpendicular to the margin. Throughout mich of the region of interest che tangential stress exceeds the radial stress and so hydraulic fractures ate predicted to have an otlentatfon of approximately Ne/sh. At distances greater than 100 ke north of the ice-sheet margin, nydvaulie fractures should rotate 90° and allga with @ more NW/SE direction. A complication arises in applying these predic~ tions to an actual geological situation but this complication aay ultimately be beneficial to gas exploration. The earth's lithosphere and crust, particularly in the Appalachian region of the eastern U.S., 4s not homogeneous. Ta particuler, pre~ existing zones of weakness, auch a faults or Linea nents within the Lithosphere, wi1l perturb the staple Fegional varfation in stress predicted by the glacial model, However, if the locations of these weaknesses fare known, and if the glacially induced stresses are Known, thé Iincanents may be used to great advantage in exploration for productive gas zones. AB an ex- ample, suppose two Lineaments {n the vielaity of the productive gas region (Figure 7) are parallel but Offset, ae depicted in Figure 10. If these Iineanents fare algo tangent to the effective Lce-sheet margin, then during the glacial saxtsum the model predicts a tensile steess of ~5-8 MPa (-B40 pst) acting perpendi~ cular to the Mneanent strike whereas a compressional Stress of 11.7 MPa (1700 pet) parallels the strike (Flgure 10), The interaction between the Lineanents and the glactally induced stresses can be apdeled with an elastic finite element aodel. The computer code used here 19 APES which can approximate the Singular stress field near crack tips. Figure 10 gives the boundary conditions for the plane strain Calculation and Figure 11 gives the resulting minimun principal stress contours in the vicinity of the Lineasents (cracks). All ainimu principal stresses are tensional. It is Likely that fracturing will be ost abundant in regions of greatest tensional stress fand Figure IIA indicates that such a region exists between the two lineament ends. Here the local tensional stress Je more than twice the applied stress and so considerable secondary Fracturing vould be expected. High gas production could occur in such @ gone. Near the central part of a Mneanent the ten~ ‘tonal stress 42 ese than half the applied stress (Figure 113), In such regions fracturing is less likely to occur and go less gas production might be expected, The orientation of the principal stresses Totate slightly for this case, but the magnitude of fotation is usually less than'15*. Of course, for each different Lineanent configuration relative to the applied stress, the regions of greatest expected fracturing vill differ. However, for any given geo- Jogical eltuation, a calculation Iike that described above can be a useful guide for gas exploration. The predicted glactally induced stresses, at present, are not tensional; however, the interaction Of these stresses with ex{sting Iincasents or faclte may cause local tensional stresses even at present.15 Local reorientation of prinetpal stresses near these \g0e0 in the earth's crust is to be expected. 39 GLACIAL LOADING: A CAUSE OF NATURAL FRACTURING spe #10798 DISCLaSTOR In a region as geologically complex as the Appalachian Basin, it is unlikely that any single mechanism for fracturing will apply everywhere. Certainly, the glacial wechanisn for Fracturing des~ cribed here vill only be effective within a fev hundred ktlossters of the ice-sheet aargin. Hoever, this encospasses most of the region of interest to Devonian shale gas production. These glactally induced stresses must be super inposed upon the ambient stress state which 1s unknown. Although here the stress 1s assumed to be 0.7 Sy tn fall directions, it aay be that small tectonic forces fare present even on this passive continental margin, '6 resulting in a deviatoric aubient stress state. Furthermore, the ice-sheet thickness, Lithospherte thickness, and the strength of the Lithosphere are not well-deterained. Wowever, after considering the physically plausible range of each of these parame fers, the general conclusions of this study are not significantly affected. The assumptions of ice sheet axial ayanetry and instantaneous deglaciation made to this pLlot study are unrealistic, but methods extst which’ can accommodate any tee-shéct configurgtign and history as well as spherical earth geonetry. 6 Most previous studies of natural fracturing tn Devonian shales have only considered etructural.con~ trols of fracturing. Although tt cannot be dented that faulting and folding cause Fracturing, most of these events occurred in the Appalachians prior to the Cretaceous (> 100 million years ago). In the Long intervening time, healing or mineralization of fract tures might be expected, Such fractures could be reactivated by @ very recent stress such as thet caused by glaciation. Indeed, 1t may be that the Glacial control 1s sore mportant in reopening pre- exieting fractures than in creating fractures in Unbroken shale, This possibility and the discussion in the preceding section concerning 1ineament pertur= bation of the glacially Induced atress field imply that the glacial mechanism should not be applied in ignorance of the local geology: ‘Throughout this paper only the aost recent glacta t1on has been considered, Tt {8 well knowa, hovever, that there have been many previous glactations that were at least ae extensive as the Last one. By relat~ ng oxygen isotope data in deep sea cores to ocean volune and finally to dee-sheet size it is knova that large glactations have occurred, on average, every 100,000 years for at least the past 2 million years (Figure 12), Such persistent pounding of the earth's surface during the recent geological past, with stresace at least as large as those predicted here, faust have influenced natural fracturing and subsequent gas production. CoNcLUSONS ‘The huge wetghe of the 5 km thick ice sheet of the} ‘most recent ice age induced stresses in the earth's crust that exceed the strength of Devonian shale. region where the stresses were most likely to cause fracturing is 50-175 km south of the icewsheet margin in unglaciated terrain where the Lithosphere vas severely bent only 10,000 years ago. This region coincides with the ost productive Devonian shale gas Sfelde, where gas production is thought to be consider: ably eahanced by natural fracture systems. The 1itho- ‘The sphere has not returned to ite unstressed stete after ‘deglaciation and predictions aggeat that the observed ‘spatial variation in atress ratios may result from these glactally induced stresses. The stress pattern is complicated, hovever, by weaknesses within the rth's crust (faults, Lineaments, ete.) which can concentrate or dissipate the predicted, glactally Anduced stresses. This added complexity aight be advantageous in exploration for natural gas by secking Fegions where stress concentrations will cause fractur- ing. In one example, the region between the ends of two lineaments is the aost likely target for gas production. The glacial fracturing mechanisa 13 even hore attractive when one reaaabers that ice sheets hhave advanced approxiaately 20 tines in the past 2 illion years. NOMENCLATURE D= flemural rigidity of the Lithosphere = end at earth's surface, MPa (psi) s py 7 tee density = 900 kg/a? 1 th 2ak we seattn tine #22 n © viscosity of mantle = 1022 Poise scmassoain ‘This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Enerays REFERENCES. Dean, C. $+) and Overbey, We Ke, "Exploration Strategy for an Unconventional Natural Cas Resource: Devonian Shale,” Proceedings, 3rd Eastern Gas Shales Symposium, MéfC/SP-79/6, (1979), pp 35-38. a Paterson, Ws S+ Bs, “Laurentide Ice Sheet Botinated Volumes During Late Wisconstn, of Geophys. & Space Physics, (1972), vs 10, pp 885-917. see 10798 JAMES A. CLARK 3 8 %. 10. 2 aa 1“ a3. 16. Hughes, T- Je, Denton, G. He, Andersen, Bs Gey Schilling, D.'H., Fastook, J: Ls, and Lingle, C. Se, "The Last Great ee Sheets: A Global View, in Denton, G. ils & Hughes, T. J., eds, Last Great Ice Sheets, John Wiley & Sons, Ince New York (1981), pp 263-317. Walcott, Rs T. “Late Quaternary Vertical Nove= frente th astern North Anericar Quantitative Bvi~ Ssnce of GlaciovLsostacte Rebound,” Rev. Geophys. Espace Physics (1972), vs 10, pp 849-884, Clark, J. As, Farrell, We Hs, and Peltier, W. Re “Global Changes in Postglacial Sea Level: A Nuserical Caiculatton,” Quaternary Kes (1978), ve 9, pp 265-287. Peltier, W. Re, "The Impulse Response of a Max- weil Earth,” Rev. of Geophys. and Space Physics, (2974), v.12, pp 05-605. Cathles, Ls Ms, The Viscosity of the Earth's Mantle, Princeton Univ. Frese, Princeton, NJ C975), 386 pp. Clark, J. A. "The Reconstruction of the Lauren= tide ice Shest of North Anerica from Sea-Level Data: Method and Preliminary Reaolts,” J. of Geophys. Res. (1980), v. 85, pp. 4307-4527. Nye, J. P. “The Plow of Glaciers and Ice Sheets is a Probien in Plasticity,” Proc. oy. So London, Ser. A, (1951), ve 207, pp 55e-572- Price, N- J. “The Development of Stress Systens and Fracture Patterns in Undeforned Sediments” Proc. ‘Third Congress of the International Soc. for Hock Mechanics, Denver in Advances tn Rock Hechanicg, National Academy of Sciences, (1974), vey Part A, pp 487-496. ikomar, Cs As, Yost, A. Be, and Sinclair, A. Re "practical Aspects of Foam Fracturing in the Devonian Shale,” (1979), SPE Paper 8345. Komar, C. A and Bolyard, T. "Structure/stres Ratio Relationships within the Appalachian Basin,” US. Gov't, Printing Office Map (1981), 759-037. Hanson, Me Es, Shaffer, R. Je, Hearst, J. R Anderson, G. De, Montan, D. Ne, Heard, H.C.) ‘and Emerson, D. 0. “Update on the LLL Gas Stim latton Progran,” Proc. Volume Third ERDA Symposium on ‘and ‘Symposium on Enhanced Gil and Gas Recovery and. Iaproved Drilling Methods, Tulsa, OK (1977), ee, pp FMT to P70 Ghfford, Le Ns, “APES--Second Generation Two™ Dimensional Fracture Mechanics and Stress Analysis by Finite Elements,” David Taylor Naval, Ship Hesearch and Developneat Genter Report 4799, December, 1975. Segall, P. and Pollard, D. D. “Mechantes of Discontinuous Faults,”"J. Geophys. Res. (1980), v.87, pp 4337-6350, Roper, P. Ju, "Post=Jurassic Tectonism in Eastern North America,” Tectonophysics (1980), vs 67, pp 61-80. uw. Farrell, W. E. and Clark, J. As, "On Post= glacial Sea Level,” Geophys. J." of the Roy. Aste. Soc, (1976), ve 46, pp 64/=667. TIME (1000 YRS BEFORE PRESENT) 5 4 3 2 1 =O 0) OBSERVED SEA-LEVEL RISE (feet) OBSERVED SEA-LEVEL RISE (meters) (APPROXIMATELY EQUAL TO VERTICAL DEFORMATION OF THE EARTH) Fig. 1 — Observod rise in oa ve aong the caste U.S. coastne dung the past 5000 years, DISTANCE MAINE MASS. NJ. _VIRGINIA_N.C. FLORIDA OBSERVED RANGE PRESENT RATE OF SEA-LEVEL RISE (omy) Fig, 2— Prsont ate of 2ese¥ rise alors ho oastorn US, coasone as insestod byte gauge EARTH SURFACE DEFORMATION (m) ICE SHEET THICKNESS (m) 6000 = _ 4500+ 3000+ h(r)) 1500}- r o ° 500 1000 1500 DISTANCE FROM ICE SHEET CENTER (km) Fig. 3 — Axisymmetric ice-sheet profile used in this study. The profile is approximated by 8 discs stacked one above the other. 7150 ° 150 300 450 600 750 DISTANCE FROM ICE SHEET CENTER (km) 500 1000 1500 2000 UNDEFORMED Tice sHeeT——>1 ' -500 aS | 500 + 1500 1 8 ) EARTH SURFACE DEFORMATION (feet) 4 2000 4 2500 Fig. 4 — Predicted vertical deformation of the earth’s surface. Flexing ofthe lithosphere beyond the ice-sheet margin causes horizontal stresses at the earth’s surface. RADIAL STRESS (MPa) DISTANCE FROM ICE SHEET CENTER (km) ° 500 1000 1500 2000 ICE SHEET» }- —— GLACIAL MAXIMUM —-— 2000 YRS AFTER DEGLACIATION PRESENT 1500 750 ° -750 -1500 RADIAL STRESS (psi) 4-2250 -3000 Fig. — Prec horontal sess nto radial econ. Gratet cress magnitudes cecured ing TANGENTIAL STRESS (MPa) ‘egal manu but gladly noucou seas sho. DISTANCE FROM ICE SHEET CENTER (km) o 500 1000 1500 2000 1500 1Ge SHEET ++ 750 =5/ —— GLACIAL MAXIMUM == 2000 YRS AFTER DEGLACIATION Fig. € — Proce norisonta sesso the tection tangerto he ice shew marin ° TANGENTIAL STRESS (psi) 50 190 YQ 5 STRESS RATIO ~ GLACIAL LIME 27> "EFFECTIVE" GLACIAL LIMIT REGION OF HISTORICAL ‘GAS PRODUCTION RL Fig, 7 — Raatonsnp of ras rns (imam nozona pregal svessvartel ses] to ‘Gersot margin and gas proguang agen (wom Koma ta) HISTORICAL GAS Ice SHEET >} | PRODUCTION oe o9 os o7 16 14 2 06 10 a sos STRESS RATIO 03 02 oa 00 -2 |: TENSILE STRENGTH ‘OF DEVONIAN SHALE RADIAL STRESS AT 0.9 km DEPTH (MPa) 4 6 ‘STRESS RATIO +200 100 ° 700-200, DISTANCE FROM ICE SHEET MARGIN (km) Fig, 8 — Reatonahipo preci aveseas aa doth o 09 tr (3000) t stress ratios and opin ol oral gas podurton, Anant stess ~ 14 ba(2.100 ps) STRESS (MPa) DISTANCE FROM ICE SHEET CENTER (km) 0 500 1000 1500 2000 T T T T 7 ICE SHEET ——______-| 3500 207 ‘TIME = PRESENT 43000 ¢ & 2500 ~~ 15 3 2000 w RADIAL STRESS AMBIENT £ 10P ____ tanceNnTiaL sTRESS stress 41500 w REGION WHERE HYDRAULIC FRACTURES 5 Qa WILL BE IN THE TANGENTIAL DIRECTION , -|1000 i ‘9 — Comparison of the predicted spatial variation in the radial and tangential horizontal stresses at present. Hydraulic fractures wil align with the maximum stress. N TENSION / 5.8 MPa (840 psi) COMPRESSION 11.7 MPa (1700 psi) Fig. 10 — Boundary conditions and geometry for the calculation of local stress perturbation about lineaments (cracks). Two en echelon lineaments are represented. ENLARGEMENT A 8.3 (g00) 2.8400) 5.5800) 11.0 (1600)| MINIMUM PRINCIPAL STRESS CONTOURS: MPa (psi) (ALL STRESSES ARE TENSIONAL) ENLARGEMENT B Fi. 11 — Caza miu princi arizona srseas near Ieamants caused by ‘jail idcod sresaes al anim stsoes ris ear re tonto 5320 £3 1500 58 1000 WB 500 2 MILLION os ++ YEARS © 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 TIME (1000 YEARS BEFORE PRESENT) Fig 12 — lo-seet aaa uncon of time le shoe as age athe most cet ee shat have ‘ood every 106000 yen for atest lat 2 sion year

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