Carbon in Earth’s fluid envelopes—the atmosphere and hydrosphere—plays a fundamental role in our planet’s climate system. It is also essential for the origin and evolution of life, for a large fraction of the energy we use, and for the multitude of carbon‐based materials so essential to the modern world. Yet the source and original quantity of carbon in our planet is uncertain (Marty et al., 2013), as are the identities and relative importance of early chemical processes associated with planetary differentiation (e.g., the moon‐forming impact, core formation, the onset of plate tectonics). Numerous lines of evidence point to the early and continuing exchange of substantial carbon between Earth’s surface and its interior (Dasgupta, 2013), such as information carried by subducted carbon trapped in diamonds, mantle‐derived magmas rich in carbon, carbonate‐bearing rocks found in fossil subduction zones, and springs carrying deeply sourced carbon‐bearing gases (Burton et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2013; Ni & Keppler, 2013; Shirey et al., 2013). Although quantifying the input and output fluxes is challenging, there is little doubt that a substantial amount of carbon resides in our planet’s interior (Dasgupta and Hirschmann, 2010, Kelemen & Manning, 2015). 

This book was initiated by a study conducted at Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences for Shell Research. For the present book this study has been considerably enlarged and modified. The book has benefited from discussions with numerous colleagues, and numerous colleagues have provided us with unpublished data and information. Without this support, this book would not have been possible.

Heterogeneity is an intrinsic property of all carbonate reservoirs. The properties of these reservoirs considerably change both laterally and vertically. Lateral changes are usually the result of various depositional settings, while vertical heterogeneities are caused by basin evolution through time. Available data from these reservoirs are very limited and so predicting the distribution of properties between the wells is very complicated. The hydrocarbon in place is calculated using these predictions and so they are very important. In fact, many aspects of the reservoir studies are about heterogeneities. Facies analysis and classifications, determining sedimentary environments, reservoir rock typing, flow unit determination and sequence stratigraphy are some examples. <...>

ТЬе intention of this book is to provide а detai!ed synthesis of the enormous body of research which has Ьееп published оп carbonate sediments and rocks. Such rocks аге worthy of attention for severa! reasons. ТЬеу аге vo!umetrically а most signifcant part of the geo!ogica! record and possess тисЬ of the fossil гес-ord of !ife оп this p!anet. Most importantly they contain at !east 40% of the wor!d's known hydroсагЬоп reserves. ТЬеу a!so р!ау host to base meta! deposits and groundwater resources, and аге raw materia!s for the construction and chemica! industries. No other rock type is as economically important.