Sources of lithium and barium in Gulf of Mexico Basin formation waters, USA

Barium concentrations in formation waters produced along with hydrocarbons from the Gulf of Mexico sedimentary basin range from less than one to nearly 2000 mg/L. Unaltered detrital potassium feldspars contain about 0.3 weight per cent barium. Barite probably controls the barium concentration of formation waters, but barium content of whole-rock sandstones (Oligocene) may decrease with depth, suggesting that barium is not conserved in the sandstones during diagenesis. The amount of barium in whole-rock sandstones is greater than that calculated using the barium content of potassium-feldspar, suggesting that either altered detrital feldspars contained more barium than the amount in remaining feldspars or that…