SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF A CONTINENTAL MARGIN SUBJECTED TO LOW-ENERGY AND LOW-SEDIMENT-SUPPLY ENVIRONMENTAL BOUNDARY CONDITIONS: LATE PLEISTOCENE–HOLOCENE DEPOSITION OFFSHORE ALABAMA, U.S.A.

Author(s):  
LOUIS R. BARTEK ◽  
BRIAN S. CABOTE ◽  
TONJA YOUNG ◽  
WILLIAM SCHROEDER
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (11) ◽  
pp. 1581-1600
Author(s):  
Luke A. Pettinga ◽  
Zane R. Jobe

ABSTRACT Submarine landscapes, like their terrestrial counterparts, are sculpted by autogenic sedimentary processes toward morphologies at equilibrium with their allogenic controls. While submarine channels and nearby, inter-channel continental-margin areas share boundary conditions (e.g., terrestrial sediment supply, tectonic deformation), there are significant differences between the style, recurrence, and magnitude of their respective autogenic sedimentary processes. We predict that these process-based differences affect the rates of geomorphic change and equilibrium (i.e., graded) morphologies of submarine-channel and continental-margin longitudinal profiles. To gain insight into this proposed relationship, we document, classify (using machine learning), and analyze longitudinal profiles from 50 siliciclastic continental margins and associated submarine channels which represent a range of sediment-supply regimes and tectonic settings. These profiles tend to evolve toward smooth, lower-gradient longitudinal profiles, and we created a “smoothness” metric as a proxy for the relative maturity of these profiles toward the idealized equilibrium profile. Generally, higher smoothness values occur in systems with larger sediment supply, and the smoothness of channels typically exceeds that of the associated continental margin. We propose that the high rates of erosion, bypass, and deposition via sediment gravity flows act to smooth and mature channel profiles more rapidly than the surrounding continental margin, which is dominated by less-energetic diffusive sedimentary processes. Additionally, tectonic deformation will act to reduce the smoothness of these longitudinal profiles. Importantly, the relationship between total sediment supply and the difference between smoothness values of associated continental margins and submarine channels (the “smoothness Δ”) follows separate trends in passive and active tectonic settings, which we attribute to the variability in relative rates of smoothness development between channelized and inter-channel environments in the presence or absence of tectonic deformation. We propose two endmember pathways by which continental margins and submarine channels coevolve towards their respective equilibrium profiles with increased sediment supply: 1) Coupled Evolution Model (common in passive tectonic settings), in which the smoothness Δ increases only slightly before remaining static, and 2) Decoupled Evolution Model (common in active tectonic settings), in which the smoothness Δ increases more rapidly and to a greater final value. Our analysis indicates that the interaction of the allogenic factors of sediment supply and tectonic deformation with the autogenic sedimentary processes characteristic of channelized and inter-channel areas of the continental margin may account for much of the variability between coevolution pathways and depositional architectures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 796-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grit Warratz ◽  
Rüdiger Henrich ◽  
Ines Voigt ◽  
Cristiano M. Chiessi ◽  
Gerhard Kuhn ◽  
...  

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sardar Ateeq-Ur-Rehman ◽  
Minh Bui ◽  
Shabeh Hasson ◽  
Peter Rutschmann

A number of significant investigations have advanced our understanding of the parameters influencing reservoir sedimentation. However, a reliable modelling of sediment deposits and delta formation in reservoirs is still a challenging problem due to many uncertainties in the modelling process. Modelling performance can be improved by adjusting the uncertainty caused by sediment load boundary conditions. In our study, we diminished the uncertainty factor by setting more precise sediment load boundary conditions reconstructed using wavelet artificial neural networks for a morphodynamic model. The model was calibrated for hydrodynamics using a backward error propagation method. The proposed approach was applied to the Tarbela Reservoir located on the Indus River, in northern Pakistan. The results showed that the hydrodynamic calibration with coefficient of determination (R2) = 0.969 and Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) = 0.966 also facilitated good calibration in morphodynamic calculations with R2 = 0.97 and NSE = 0.96. The model was validated for the sediment deposits in the reservoir with R2 = 0.96 and NSE = 0.95. Due to desynchronization between the glacier melts and monsoon rain caused by warmer climate and subsequent decrease of 17% in sediment supply to the Tarbela dam, our modelling results showed a slight decrease in the sediment delta for the near future (until 2030). Based on the results, we conclude that our overall state-of-the-art modelling offers a significant improvement in computational time and accuracy, and could be used to estimate hydrodynamic and morphodynamic parameters more precisely for different events and poorly gauged rivers elsewhere in the world. The modelling concept could also be used for predicting sedimentation in the reservoirs under sediment load variability scenarios.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Khitrenko ◽  
Adelia Minkhatova ◽  
Vladimir Orlov ◽  
Dmitriy Kotunov ◽  
Salavat Khalilov

Abstract Western Siberia is a unique petroleum basin with exclusive geological objects. Those objects allow us to test various methods of sequence stratigraphy, systematization and evaluation approaches for reservoir characterization of deep-water sediments. Different methods have potential to decrease geological uncertainty and predict distribution and architecture of deep-water sandstone reservoir. There are many different parameters that could be achieved through analysis of clinoform complex. Trajectories of shelf break, volume of sediment supply and topography of basin influence on architecture of deep-water reservoir. Based on general principles of sequence stratigraphy, three main trajectories changes shelf break might be identified: transgression, normal regression and forced regression. And each of them has its own distinctive characteristics of deepwater reservoir. However, to properly assess the architecture of deepwater reservoir and potential of it, numerical characteristics are necessary. In our paper, previously described parameters were analyzed for identification perspective areas of Achimov formation in Western Siberia and estimation of geological uncertainty for unexplored areas. In 1996 Helland-Hansen W., Martinsen O.J. [5] described different types of shoreline trajectory. In 2002 Steel R.J., Olsen T. [11] adopted types of shoreline trajectory for identification of truncation termination. O. Catuneanu (2009) [1] summarize all information with implementation basis of sequence stratigraphy. Over the past decade, many geoscientists have used previously published researches to determine relationship between geometric structures of clinoforms and architecture of deep-water sediments and its reservoir quality. Significant amount of publications has allowed to form theoretical framework for the undersanding sedimentation process and geometrical configuration of clinoforms. However, there is still no relationship between sequence stratigraphy framework of clinoroms and reservoir quality and its uncertainty, which is necessary for new area evaluation.


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