This book brings together for the first time the results of research on the thermal properties and temperature-related behavior of rocks with their contained fluids, under subsurface environmental conditions. These data are of increasing importance with increased application of underground processes involving high temperature and, in some cases, low temperature environments. Some of the important processes are described in which thermal data are needed. Chapters deal with thermal properties of rocks, including heat capacities, thermal conductivities and thermal diffusivities under conditions simulating subsurface environments. Discussion about the difficulty in measuring thermal properties of rock/fluid systems is included along with newly-developed models for predicting thermal properties from more-easily measured properties. The effects of thermal reactions in rocks, differential thermal expansion, and thermal alterations are discussed in separate chapters. The effects of temperature on rock properties, as distinct from the irreversible effects of heating, are reviewed. Lastly the book deals with wellbore applications of thermal and high-temperature behavior of rocks and methods of deducing thermal properties from geophysical logs run in boreholes. Appendices include thermal units conversion factors and thermal properties of some typical reservoir rocks and fluids.

Rock physics encompasses practically all aspects of solid and fluid state physics. This book provides a unified presentation of the underlying physical principles of rock physics, covering elements of mineral physics, petrology and rock mechanics. After a short introduction on rocks and minerals, the subsequent chapters cover rock density, porosity, stress and strain relationships, permeability, poroelasticity, acoustics, conductivity, polarizability, magnetism, thermal properties and natural radioactivity. Each chapter includes problem sets and focus boxes with in-depth explanations of the physical and mathematical aspects of underlying processes. The book is also supplemented by online MATLAB exercises to help students apply their knowledge to numerically solve rock physics problems. Covering laboratory and field-based measurement methods, as well as theoretical models, this textbook is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in rock physics. It will also make a useful reference for researchers and professional scientists working in geoscience and petroleum engineering.

This volume highlights the career of Dr. Gaku Kimura, professor emeritus of geosciences at the University of Tokyo, by showing the spectrum of research required to understand these dynamic environments and the range of research he has inspired. The first three chapters provide context for the growth of accretionary prisms by examining the thermal structure of the ocean crust, and the sedimentary facies and potential fluid pathways in the Shikoku Basin. Next, two chapters look at the regional-scale structure of the plate boundary and the rheology and hysteresis of the hanging wall of the subduction zone in SW Japan. The following five chapters discuss the progressive deformation and thermal maturation of sediments along accretionary margins from Japan to New Zealand to western North America. The final two chapters look at the deformation processes near the subducting plate interface with the last chapter proposing a link between outcrop-scale observations and seismic slip.