Quartz is the major porosity-reducing cement in many sandstone sequences. Quartz cements thus represent a key source of petrographic and geochemical information about diagenetic history. They are also the major determinant of sandstone reservoir quality.
Whilst the ultimate goal of research in this area is to make robust predictions about the amount and distribution of quartz cements in a wide variety of depositional and burial settings, there are nevertheless large areas of the subject that are poorly understood and which remain the subject of controversy.
The aim of this Volume, based partly on papers submitted to a 1996 workshop in Belfast, and partly on invited contributions, is to bring together some of the main strands of research into quartz cements and provide a focus for the debate as well as directions for future research.
This book will be welcomed by sedimentologists, petrographers and geochemists involved in sandstone digenesis, as well as by petroleum geologists seeking a deeper understanding of the factors influencing reservoir porosity and permeability.