Abstract:
Porosity evolution of carbonates in the Buda Hills was the subject of this research. The aim was to provide an analogue for carbonate reservoirs that underwent multiphase diagenesis. Two major porosity types were recognized: 1) micro-porosity of powdered Triassic dolomites 2) cavernous and fracture porosity represented by the famous hypogenic cave system, hosted by Triassic and Paleogene carbonates. Powderization of dolomite is a general phenomenon in the Buda Hills, where its areal extent is exceptionally large compared to similar occurrences elsewhere in the world. Geochemistry and mineralogy of the dolomite remained constant throughout the disintegration. Powderization is absent at places where the Triassic dolomites are partially calcitized as a result of karst related dedolomitization. Since powderization was controlled by surface related processes and no geochemical changes were associated with it, disintegration of dolomite is interpreted as the result of sub-recent physical weathering, supposedly related to frost action.

Hypogenic caves are found along older calcite-barite-fluorite-sulphide veins, pointing to the fact that young cave-forming fluids migrated along the same fractures as the older mineralizing fluids did. Predominantly NNW–SSE strike of fractures concludes a latest Early Miocene maximum age for the fracture-filling minerals. Vein-calcite contains coeval primary, HC-bearing- and aqueous inclusions indicating that also HCs have migrated together with the mineralizing fluids. The coexistence of aqueous and HC inclusions permitted to establish the entrapment temperature (80°C) and pressure (85 bar) of the fluid and thus also the thickness of sediments, having been eroded since latest Early Miocene times, was calculated (800 m). Low salinity of the fluids (<1.7 NaCl eq. wt%) implies that HC-bearing fluids were diluted by regional karst water. Fluid inclusion studies also revealed that aggressive gases (e.g. CO2, H2S) were associated with HCs and that these gases may have played a role in dissolution of the carbonates. Based on the location of the paleo- and recent HC indications, identical migration pathways were reconstructed for both systems. It was proved that HC-bearing fluids have migrated northwestward from the basin east to the Buda Hills from the Miocene on. Due to the uplift related intensification of groundwater circulation, the proportion of hydrothermal fluids has diminished in favour of cold meteoric fluids. Establishment of the actual porosity of the Buda Karst initiated in Miocene times and earlier diagenetic history of the carbonates affected only the powderization of dolomite, and it had no direct effect on the localization of hypogenic caves.