Organic Matter and Clays: Sedimentary Origin, Associated Resources, and Reservoirs

Organic matter (OM) accounts for only a small portion of sedimentation. Unlike other deposited particles, it can change rapidly during burial by interacting with the grains of the host rock and producing fluids (gases and liquids) that will be highly mobile. Because it is degraded by bacteria, its preservation depends on numerous factors, but above all on the fine grain size of the grains deposited at the same time. Thus, clays represent the most favorable environment for the preservation of OM, but their complex mineralogy makes them a unique material that will also undergo transformation during burial. The products of these interactions have naturally attracted interest in the mining and petroleum industries, since these processes are responsible for the formation of major coal deposits and the production of hydrocarbons. Recently, however, studies have increasingly focused on these two elements as tracers of sediment origin and, subsequently, as markers of burial, which is of major importance for understanding the filling of basins and their post-depositional evolution.

The sessions are organized as follows:
- Introduction
- Organic matter in sediments (origin and nature)
- Coals (formation and classification)
- Clays (origin and evolution with burial)
- The maturation of organic matter (transformations and interactions with clays)
- Unconventional resources (use of organic matter-rich clays)

All of these concepts will then serve as a foundation for introducing basin modeling (depositional history, geodynamic history, and post-depositional tectonics; burial curves; and thermal history), which will be covered in S4 in the Resource Evaluation module, “Fluids” track.

Students must have a solid understanding of basin geology and sedimentology (S1 and S2 of the master's program).

A background in organic geochemistry can be helpful in understanding the complex concepts covered in this module.

Graded exercises are included in the tutorial and lab sessions, and a final applied exam will be administered based on a case study.