Volume: 4 Issue 9 [September 2021]

Article:Field Investigations and Organic Content Measurement of Cretaceous Chichali Shale, Chichali Gorge, Trans Indus Ranges, Pakistan

Author: Ali Raza, Yiwen Ju, Azeem Shah, Salman Ahmed Khattak, Aamer Asghar, Peng Qiao, Lei Xiao

Volume: Vol 4, Issue 9; September 2021

DOI: North American Academic Research, 4(9) 78-91, September 2021, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5528787

Abstract: The Cretaceous Chichali Formation in Chichali Gorge section, Trans Indus Ranges, is 60m thick. The Chichali Formation is divided into different members based on lithological variations, i.e., lower, middle, and upper members. The lower member ~25m comprises carbonaceous sandy shale inter-bedded with fine-grained glauconitic sandstone. The shales of this member are complete with Belemnites fossils. The middle member is ~20m thick, composed of thick fine bedded grained glauconitic sandstones with shale having few Belemnites. The upper ~25m thick member is comprised of dark green glauconitic sandstone, which lacks Belemnites. The results of the geochemical analysis of investigated shales samples show slight variations in TOC results, with the highest value of 0.41 wt% (CPC-1) and the lowest value of 0.12 wt% (CPC-10). The highest TOC value is reported in the dark black carbonaceous shales, full of Belemnites (lower member) of the Chichali Formation. In contrast, the lowest value of TOC is reported in the upper greenish shales, which lacks Belemnites (upper member) of the Chichali Formation. It has been observed that all the samples have less than 0.5 TOC wt%, which indicates that the Chichali Shale is below the minimum limit required for a rock to act as a potential source rock.

Comments