*5.6. Limitations of the Calculations*

All basins have their particular thermal and structural histories concerning e.g., sediment source, lithology, fluid circulation, pore fluid chemistry, and structural development. These variations all play a part in possible chemical alterations in the subsurface and lead to unique diagenetic development. Therefore, information regarding these elements must be included for more detailed local studies.

In numerical modeling there is a direct link between the quality of the input data and the quality of the output from the models. When studying a particular area, caution must be taken regarding various parameters. For instance, we only studied conductive heat transfer in the subsurface and heat convection by fluids is not accounted for. Convection by fluids could influence the resulting thermal and diagenetic calculations to various degrees (cf., [137–141]). The Vøring area shows proof of fluid convection (e.g., [142]), our results therefore show maximum porosity loss, at least for some areas. However, for basins that show little to no signs of convecting fluids, the presented estimations are adequate. We argue that the method presented here is a good approach to reveal areas needing further investigation of possible diagenetic alterations and thus possible alterations of reservoir properties.
