Inventors:
William S. Clendenen - Houston TX
Christopher S. Tapscott - Houston TX
William R. James - Houston TX
William G. Powell - Houston TX
Assignee:
Exxon Production Research Company - Houston TX
International Classification:
G01K 304, G01K 1100, G01K 1300
Abstract:
The invention relates to a multivariate method of inverting paleothermometer and age indicator data to derive the temperature history of rocks. The method uses kinetic models of geologic material transformations and a simple but flexible representation of bed temperature history to invert the paleothermometer data. The method inverts the data by employing a genetic algorithm computation and kinetic model S. The result is a family of temperature histories which more accurately and more completely characterize temperature histories consistent with the rock samples than is possible by prior art methods.