Sedimentary basins are the low-temperature chemical reactors that produce most
of the hydrocarbon, mineral and drinking water resources upon which modern
civilization depends. Understanding the operation of these reactors is
difficult not only because they are hundreds of kilometers in size but also
because their operation links many different processes, each of which has
become a separate scientific discipline. The operation of these coupled
thermo-chemical-structural reactors is important to the competitiveness of U.S.
industry, and to the nation. For the next several decades there is probably
no
science or technology more important to the nation than that related to the
discovery and production of subsurface fluids (hydrocarbons, minerals and
drinking water).
In order to improve fluid exploration effectiveness, the greatest need is to
predict how these fluids move in sedimentary basins, and such an understanding
requires
- the development of basin process models that integrate the effects
of sedimentation, structural deformation, temperature, fluid flow, and
inorganic and organic chemical change, and
- the assembly of a unified
multi-disciplinary data base on process-representative portions of specific
basins that is accurate enough to test these models. Progress requires the
linking of scientists from diverse disciplines in collaboration with a group of
oil companies willing to provide the necessary data. The Global Basins
Research Network was founded in January 1990 to meet these challenges.