Structural traps

Traps can be formed in many ways. Those formed by tectonic events, such as folding or faulting of rock units, are called structural traps. The most common structural traps are anticlines, upfold of strata that appear as ovals on the horizontal planes of geologic maps. About 80 percent of the world's petroleum has been found in anticlinal traps. Most anticlines were produced by lateral pressure, but some have resulted from the draping and subsequent compaction of accumulating sediments over topographic highs. The closure of an anticline is the vertical distance between its highest point and the spill plane, the level at which the petroleum can escape if the trap is filled beyond capacity. Some traps are filled with petroleum to their spill plane, but others contain considerably smaller amounts than they can accommodate on the basis of their size.

Another kind of structural trap is the fault trap. Here, rock fracture results in a relative displacement of strata that forms a barrier to petroleum migration. A barrier can occur when an impermeable bed is brought into contact with a carrier bed. Sometimes the faults themselves provide a seal against “updip” migration when they contain impervious clay gouge material between their walls. Faults and folds often combine to produce traps, each providing a part of the container for the enclosed petroleum. Faults can, however, allow the escape of petroleum from a former trap if they breach the cap rock seal.

Other structural traps are associated with salt domes. Such traps are formed by the upward movement of salt masses from deeply buried evaporate beds, and they occur along the folded or faulted flanks of the salt plug or on top of the plug in the overlying folded or draped sediments.