Fracture-related dolostones replacing Upper Jurassic-lowermost Cretaceous syn-rift deposits in the eastern Iberian Chain (Eastern Spain)

Abstract

Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous limestones and dolostones serve as hydrocarbon reservoirs in the offshore area of NE Spain. Since similar dolomitized rocks crop out in the adjacent onshore Maestrat Basin in the SE Iberian Range, understanding the dolomitization and other diagenetic processes is key to assessing reservoir properties. The Maestrat Basin dolostones crop out as elongated, asymmetric bodies, ranging from tens of centimetres to kilometres in length and up to 150m thick, with a wedge-shaped geometry closely associated with fractures. These dolostones are calcium-rich with low concentrations of Mn, Sr, and Na, but variable Fe, indicating that the replacement of the host limestone was followed by dolomite cement precipitation. Fluid inclusion data suggest that dolomitization took place at temperatures ranging between 70 and 120ºC. Such temperatures, together with the high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio and fluid salinity (16 to 23% wt. NaCl equivalent), reveal that the dolomitization process took place in burial conditions, from fluids that were infiltrated and likely interacted with Triassic, Liassic, and basement rocks. Although the exact age of dolomitization is not fully constrained, it is thought to coincide with fault-related dolomitization events of the same type previously described in the Maestrat Basin, likely during the latest Early Cretaceous and/or during the Late Cretaceous, in relation to the post-rift basin stage. Geochemical differences between the depocenters and structural highs may reflect the controls of the Maestrat Basin basin architecture on the composition and distribution of fluids.