Fluid-Flow and Fluid-Rock Interactions during the Dinarides collisional orogenesis: Implications on geo-resources and sustainable development.

IFPEN and the Utrecht University call for qualified candidates for a PhD project, entitled: “Fluid-Flow and Fluid-Rock Interactions during the Dinarides collisional orogenesis: Implications on geo-resources and sustainable development.” This project is based on the previously acquired field-knowledge and numerical models, which will be the starting point for a comprehensive research linking field and laboratory state of the art characterization and numerical modelling of fluid-rock interaction processes. 
Two campaigns of fieldwork in Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia will allow precise sampling and investigation of fracture-related cements and diagenetic phases. Then, advanced petrographic analysis of 100s of thin-sections (conventional, cathodoluminescence, SEM, Micro-CT) will be achieved. Geochemical characterization will include analyses of the major/trace elements, stable oxygen and carbon isotopes, radiogenic isotopes, and clumped isotopes. In addition U-Pb dating will be applied as well as fluid inclusions analyses. Up- and down-scaling (to achieve optimal REVs) will also be undertaken. The quantified specific diagenetic phases will be placed into a paragenesis and the geodynamic evolution of the orogeny, revealing a chronological order for each phase and its impact on the host-rock (especially on reservoir properties). These well-constrained diagenetic events will subsequently be subject to a new integrated numerical modelling approach. The combined numerical solutions that are already available and under development at IFP Energies nouvelles will be used, resulting in a geomodel that could be used as a reference of collisional orogenic geological features, where fluid flow and fluid-rock interactions as well as their geologic impacts can be studied. In practice, not only the phenomenological concepts and numerical solution for apprehending deep and shallow processes interconnections will be improved, but also the predictability of geo-resources potentials and geo-hazards are expected to be the outcome of this project.

Keywords : Fluid-rock interactions, modelling, diagenesis, petrography, overpressure, geo-resources, paleo-climate