A Natural Analogue of a CO2 reservoir: the Latera Caldera (central Italy). Insight from Field Data to Numerical Modeling of Fluid Flow through a Fracture Network.

Fractured volumes of rock and fault zones in the upper crust are typically composed of complex brittle discontinuities network. Determining the architecture of the fracture network and the patterns and rates of fluid flow in these structural discontinuities is a three dimensional problem. Modeling of fractures is generally performed using two basic approaches, probabilistic and deterministic. The obtained 3D models are used for numerical simulation of fluid flow, in order to identify the primary controlling parameters of fault and fractures related fluid flow. 3D probabilistic model of fractures network are based of field data (orientation, spatial distribution and density), used as input parameters, whereas deterministic models are based on kinematics and dynamic constraints. In any case, their accuracy is rather limited, due to the high number of parameters that controls fracturing processes (lithology, pressure, stresses). In this work we reconstructed a 3D fracture network directly from field data from a site that is a natural reservoir of CO2, that has been selected as a test site within the “CO2GeoNet” EC project, and than used it to simulate a fluid flow with a numerical model.