Abstract: Quantifying Deep-Water, High-Continuity Sandy Turbidite Systems

Pickering, Kevin T. - University College

Quantifying the geometry of high-continuity sand-prone systems is important for a better understanding of the intrinsic nature of these systems (volumetrics, stacking patterns) and in the application of these data to modeling the depositional characteristics of such systems (e.g. in basin analysis and reservoir modeling, including reservoir characterization). High-continuity sand-prone systems are defined as having an aspect ratio (width/depth) > 100, but typically in the order of a width hundreds of times the maximum thickness (depth). This arises from measurements of modern and ancient submarine channels which shows that they typically possess a W/D < 100 (Clark and Pickering 1996a, b). High-continuity sand-prone systems, therefore, include multilateral amalgamated (multilateral offset stacked) channels to less-confined, essentially sheet-like systems (lobes and basin-floor sheets). A new quantitative methodology is presented for defining architectural elements in high-continuity deep-water systems, using examples from the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene Grès d?Annot system, SE France, Permian Brushy Canyon Formation, USA, Ordovician Cloridorme Formation, NE Canada, and Late Precambrian Kongsfjord Formation, Arctic Norway. The efficacy of the scheme is shown by its ability to discriminate effectively between environments (e.g., abyssal plain, fan-lobe and submarine channel deposits). This scheme permits a quantitative and more objective means of comparing modern and ancient, including subsurface, turbidite depositional systems.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90933©1998 ABGP/AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil