Porosity Through Dolomitization

Abstract

Some oil pools, notably the Trenton field of Ohio and Indiana, and the Adams and Deep River fields in Michigan, produce from locally dolomitized limestones. The porous condition disappears laterally where the dolomite grades into limestone. Obviously this porosity is genetically dependent on the process of dolomitization. The traditional theory of shrinkage of volume through molecular replacement does not fit the facts; neither do the leaching or recrystallization hypotheses. It is suggested that an excess of solution by ground waters over precipitation during the replacement of limestone by dolomite created the porous condition.