Porosity types in limestones

A suite of selected oolitic limestones ranging in age from Devonian to Pleistocene was studied petrographically with light microscopy and SEM observation of resin pore casts, and petrophysically with measurements of porosity, gas and liquid permeability, and with mercury injection capillary pressure curves. A new genetic classification of porosity types and related processes in oolitic limestones is presented which is based on the chronological order of their occurrence in the natural history of the rock, following the terminology and concepts of Choquette and Pray. The understanding of the complex time and space relationships between the different types of porosity in oolitic limestones is critical for reconstructing their depositional-diagenetic history and for evaluating their economic importance as potential hydrocarbon reservoirs.