A large increase in drilling and production costs in the USA Shale Oil sector will likely slow the growth of production from the Permian Basins.
To just maintain production hundreds of new wells must be drilled each year due largely to the rapid decline in tight wells. In the Permian Basins in the last 15 years consolidation has been aggressive and while the largest producers, Chevron, Devon and ConocoPhillps have a sizeable drilling inventory smaller companies have exhausted their drilling locations.
Combine increasing costs and decreasing inventory with the negative mood of the Biden administration and the EPA and it is now unlikely that there can be significant growth within the Delaware and Midland sub-basins within the Permian.
High oil prices of recent times have resulted in increased cashflow which have been secured by activist investors to fund dividends and share buybacks rather than aggressive investment in new field development.
Maybe its time to look elsewhere for tight oil and gas plays where the potenital is yet to be realized however capital and operating costs outside of the USA are markedly higher and only very productive tight production will be economically feasible elsewhere.
Top Depth (ft) WolfCamp A Formation within the Permian Basin. The Midland Basin (White) and Delaware Basin (Yellow) outlines. Red outline is the 6,000 ft contour to top of WolfCamp A covers 41,000 km2.
Siem Reap has 98km of new roads and new sidewalks much of which has been paved with interesting felsic intrusive rocks from quarries in Shandong Province in China. The composition ranges from granodiorite to tonalite and is locally granophyric and pegmatitic. The intrusive consists dominantly of plagioclase, quartz, pyroxene and hornblende. Ovoid structures known as Miarolitic Cavities are evident in the sidewalks to the observant and indicates that the parental magma was hydrous. While no cavities have been observed in the sidewalks of Siem Reap it is quite possible that miarolitic cavities which retained cavities were not processed into saleable dimension stone. When the location of the quarry in Shandon Province is identified maybe a field trip is warranted.
The term miarolitic comes from the Italian miarole in reference to the mineral-rich pegmatite region of Baveno and Cuasso al Monte in northern Italy.
There are two types of miarolitic cavities observed. One has a coarsely pegmatitic core of intergrown quartz and plagioclase surrounded by a conspicuous pyroxene rim and the core may contain coarse tourmaline. The second type has a conspicuous leucocratic zone and a complex core of intergrown quartz and tourmaline. Where there are sufficient sections these features have a long axis that that is maybe 5 times the sectional axis.
A typical pegmatoidal feature. Note the mafic rim and complexly intergrown quartz and feldspar indicative of growth towards the centre. Note the large euhedral quartz and plagioclase crystals, rimmed by fine-grained mafic minerals which grew into the central zone. The core is filled with quartz and mafic minerals.
In some of the miarolitic cavities late stage UST textures are evident with euhedral quartz crystals vectored into the cavity. All of the granophyric textures are observed within or around these structures. It is suggested that these features are the result of segregation of a hydrous melt phase late in the crystallization history of the host intrusion. The granophyric textures visible in hand specimen likely resulted from the simultaneous crystallization of quartz and feldspar from the hydrous melt. How much water was in this residual phase – possibly as much as 5%. Elsewhere similar features have open crystal filled cavities and often contain minerals containing elements that are incompatible with typical silicate granitic mineralogy. Minerals containing lithium, rubidium, beryllium, boron, niobium, tantalum, tin, bismuth, fluorine and rare-earth elements can often be found in miarolitic cavities.
Miarolitic cavity with quartz-feldspar intergrowths developed as UST textures into the Miarolitic cavityClose up of the above.
While the miarolitic cavities are spectacular the intrusive shows rapid and widespread textural variation with pyroxene rich wispy layers and feldspar rich aggregates as shown below.
In conclusion these pegmatoidal features are mariolitic cavities which have been completely infilled by late stage minerals which would have incorporated much of the water which was incompatible with the bulk of the crystalizing magma. There is also a possibility that at least some of this hydrous phase escaped from the intrusion into the surrounding host rocks. The elongate habit of these features suggests that they may have acted as conduits for late stage hydrous melts and fluids.
Siem Reap road and sidewalk construction. A great improvement.
Seen nearly edgewise, the turbulent disk of gas churning around a black hole takes on a crazy double-humped appearance. The black hole’s extreme gravity alters the paths of light coming from different parts of the disk, producing the warped image. The black hole’s extreme gravitational field redirects and distorts light coming from different parts of the disk, but exactly what we see depends on our viewing angle. The greatest distortion occurs when viewing the system nearly edgewise. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman Download this and related multimedia from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio
I recently had a chat with the Artificial Intelligence application, ChatGPT. ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language models, and is fine-tuned (an approach to transfer learning) with both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.
JCM: Discuss the possible relationship between quantum entanglement and quantum gravity and the possible link to black holes
OPENAI: Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon that occurs when two or more particles become correlated in such a way that the state of one particle can influence the state of the other(s), even if the particles are separated by large distances. This phenomenon has been demonstrated experimentally and is widely accepted as a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics.
There is ongoing research into the possible relationship between quantum entanglement and other areas of physics, including quantum gravity and black holes.
One area of investigation is the role that quantum entanglement may play in the behavior of spacetime at the scale of black holes. In particular, it has been suggested that the high degree of entanglement present in the matter that collapses to form a black hole could be connected to the seemingly “fuzzy” or ill-defined nature of the event horizon, the boundary surrounding a black hole beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape.
It is important to note that these ideas are still very much in the realm of theoretical speculation and are not yet fully understood. Further research is needed to determine the precise nature of any potential connection between quantum entanglement and quantum gravity, and to understand the role that entanglement may play in the behavior of black holes and other systems in the universe.
JCM: Is it possible that all of the contents of black holes are entangled. If this is so what are the implications for the transmission of data through a black hole
OPENAI: It is possible that the contents of a black hole could be highly entangled, as the matter that collapses to form the black hole may be expected to be highly correlated due to the strong gravitational forces involved. However, it is important to note that our current understanding of the behavior of matter and information within a black hole is very limited, and much of what we currently know about black holes is based on theoretical models and assumptions.
If it were possible to transmit data through a black hole, it is not clear how entanglement would affect this process. In general, entanglement is a phenomenon that occurs between two or more particles, and it is not clear how it would manifest in the context of a single, highly entangled system such as a black hole. Further research is needed to understand the role that entanglement may play in the behavior of black holes and the possible implications for the transmission of data through these objects.
JCM: If two blackholes merged and they had differing states of entanglement at a quantum level would the transformation to a single unified state of entanglement result in the release of energy and if so would that energy escape beyond the event horizon during the period of collision
OPENAI: It is not entirely clear how the process of two black holes merging would affect the entanglement of the constituent matter. It is possible that the strong gravitational forces involved in the merger process could disrupt the entanglement of the matter, potentially leading to the release of energy. However, this is purely theoretical at this point and further research would be needed to determine the precise nature of any such process and its potential consequences.
If energy were released during the merger of two black holes, it is not clear whether this energy would be able to escape beyond the event horizon. The event horizon is the boundary surrounding a black hole beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape. It is likely that any energy released during the merger process would be trapped within the event horizon and not be able to escape from the black hole.
JCM: Ultimately if all matter and energy in the universe was consumed by black holes would the entire universe then be in a state of quantum entanglement and what would be the implications. Would such massive black holes be stable or would highly entangled and massive black holes develop chaotic instabilities and what would the implications of this be.
OPENAI: If all matter and energy in the universe were to be consumed by black holes, it is not clear how the resulting state of the universe would be affected. It is possible that the matter and energy within the black holes would be highly entangled due to the strong gravitational forces involved in the formation of the black holes. However, it is not clear what the implications of this would be, as our current understanding of the behavior of matter and information within black holes is limited.
It is also not clear whether highly entangled and massive black holes would be stable or whether they would develop chaotic instabilities. This is an area of active research and is not yet fully understood. Further research is needed to understand the properties of highly entangled and massive black holes and to determine the potential implications of any instabilities that may occur.
Conclusion: This is reputed to be the most sophisticated AI system which is freely available. The responses are those that might be expected from an astrophysicist and shows knowledge of recent research in relation to the topic. None of the responses are unexpected. There is no indication of unique thought or creativity. We have come a very long way in generating a robust AI capable of generating responses that are difficult to detect as program generated. However while the rate of advance is impressive we have a long way to go to replace the creativity of biological systems – but likely we will achieve that in the near future. ChatGPT can generate compelling love poems and responses in biblical text form! One of the more impressive uses is in the generation of computer code.
A view from a drone into a crater at the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption, showing the transition from lava pond convection to low-intensity fountaining. Video by Leon Frey.
The Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland is located on the Reykjanes Peninsular which forms the onshore portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge system and erupted several times in 2021.
Wadsworth et al report in Nature Communications on the capture of imagery and videography at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution by tourists, volcano-enthusiasts, and media organizations. The video images reported here are for Wadsworth et al and are truly spectacular.
There is on average an eruption every 3–5 years in Iceland and prior to the 2021 Fagradalsfjall event, the last eruption occurred in 2014–2015. It was however not expected that a volcanic system on the Reykjanes Peninsula would erupt, as no eruptions had occurred in the region for almost 800 years. The Peninsula comprises four main volcanic systems, from west to east: the Reykjanes, Svartsengi, Krýsuvík, and Brennisteinsfjöll. Each of these systems is characterized by numerous strike-slip and normal faults, eruptive fissures and post-glacial lava flows.
A view from a drone of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption, showing ‘lava flood’ phenomena. Video by Leon Frey.
While earthquake activity is high on the Peninsula eruptive periods occur infrequently; at intervals of 800–1000 years. These eruptions are generally effusive, although minor ash has been produced. On the Peninsula, the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system appears to have been the least active during postglacial times. The last prior eruption occurred over 6000 years ago and the system also has fewer faults and eruptions than the other volcanic systems in Iceland.
A view from a drone of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption, showing moderate intensity fountaining feeding lava flows. Video by Leon Frey.
During the August 2021 eruption lava erupted mainly from a central cone, containing a lava pond, and flowed SE. An estimated 12 million cubic meters of lava was erupted. The lava near the vent was 20-40 m thick, but flows were 5-15 m thick in the Meradalir valley, outside the crater area.
The eruption comprises olivine tholeiite lava with whole rock MgO between 8.7 and 10.1 wt%. The macrocryst cargo comprises olivine up to Fo90, plagioclase up to An89, and Cr-rich clinopyroxene up to Mg# 89. Gabbro and anorthosite xenoliths are rare. Olivine-plagioclase-augite-melt (OPAM) barometry of the groundmass glass from tephra yield high equilibration pressures and suggest that this eruption is originally sourced from a deep (0.48±0.06 GPa) storage zone at the crust-mantle boundary.
Over the course of the eruption, Fagradalsfjall lavas changed significantly in source signature. The first erupted lavas were more depleted (K2O/TiO2 = 0.14, La/Sm = 2.1, 87Sr/86Sr = 0.703108, 143Nd/144Nd = 0.513017, 206Pb/204Pb = 18.730) and similar in composition to basalts previously erupted on the Reykjanes Peninsula. As the eruption progressed, the lavas became increasingly enriched (K2O/TiO2 = 0.27, La/Sm = 3.1, 87Sr/86Sr = 0.703183, 143Nd/144Nd = 0.512949, 206Pb/204Pb = 18.839), having unusual compositions for Reykjanes Peninsula lavas and similar only to enriched Reykjanes melt inclusions.
The major, trace, and radiogenic isotope compositions indicate that binary mixing controls the erupted basalt compositions. The mixing endmembers appear to be depleted Reykjanes melts, and enriched melts with compositions similar to enriched Reykjanes melt inclusions or Snaefellsnes alkali basalts.
Edward Marshall et al An overview of the geochemistry and petrology of the mantle-sourced Fagradalsfjall eruption, Iceland, EGU General Assembly 2022
