James W. Schmoker 1984 <p>Data indicate that porosity loss in subsurface carbonate rocks can be empirically represented by the power function, ^Thgr = a (TTI)^b, where ^Thgr is regional porosity, TTI is Lopatin's time-temperature index of thermal maturity, the exponent, b, equals approximately -0.372, and the multiplier, a, is constant for a given data population but varies by an order of magnitude overall.</p><p>Implications include the following.</p><p>1. The decrease of carbonate porosity by burial diagenesis is a maturation process depending exponentially on temperature and linearly on time.</p><p>2. The exponent, b, is essentially independent of the rock matrix, and may reflect rate-limiting processes of diffusive transport.</p><p>3. The multiplying coefficient, a, incorporates the net effect on porosity of all depositional and diagenetic parameters.</p><p>Within constraints, carbonate-porosity prediction appears possible on a regional measurement scale as a function of thermal maturity. Estimation of carbonate porosity at the time of hydrocarbon generation, migration, or trapping also appears possible.</p> application/pdf 10.1306/AD46197B-16F7-11D7-8645000102C1865D en American Association of Petroleum Geologists Empirical relation between carbonate porosity and thermal maturity: An approach to regional porosity prediction article