Using sequence stratigraphic methods in high-sediment supply deltas: examples from the ancient Mahakam and Rajang-Lupar deltas

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.W. Snedden
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Sequence Stratigraphic ◽  
High Sediment

scholarly journals Bedrock incision by bedload: insights from direct numerical simulations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilhem Aubert ◽  
Vincent J. Langlois ◽  
Pascal Allemand
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Approach ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Sediment Flux ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Water Stream ◽  
Direct Measurements ◽  
Bedload Sediment ◽  
Discrete Element Simulations ◽  
High Sediment

Abstract. Bedload sediment transport is one of the main processes that contribute to bedrock incision in a river and is therefore one of the key control parameters in the evolution of mountainous lanscapes. In recent years, many studies have addressed this issue through experimental setups, direct measurements in the field or various analytical models. In this article, we present a new direct numerical approach: using the classical methods of discrete element simulations applied to granular materials, we compute explicitely the trajectories of a number of pebbles entrained by a turbulent water stream over a rough solid surface. This method allows us to extract quantitatively the amount of energy that successive impacts of pebbles deliver to the bedrock, as a function of both the amount of sediment available and the Shields number. We show that we reproduce qualitatively the behaviour observed experimentally by Sklar and Dietrich (2001) and observe both a "tool-effect" and a "cover- effect". Converting the energy delivered to the bedrock into an average long-term incision rate of the river leads to predictions consistent with observations in the field. Finally, we reformulate the dependency of this incision rate with Shields number and sediment flux, and predict that the cover term should decay linearly at low sediment supply and exponentially at high sediment supply.

Sequence stratigraphy of the late Carboniferous Clifton Formation, New Brunswick

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 1289-1304
Author(s):  
Brandon M. Keough ◽  
Olivia A. King ◽  
Matthew R. Stimson ◽  
Page C. Quinton ◽  
Michael C. Rygel
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Sequence Stratigraphic ◽  
Marine Strata ◽  
Stratigraphic Framework ◽  
Carbonaceous Shales ◽  
Study Interval ◽  
Maritimes Basin ◽  
Sequence Boundaries ◽  
Maximum Flooding Surface

The Maritimes Basin of Atlantic Canada contains a rich record of Pennsylvanian cyclothems. Previous studies have focused on rapidly subsiding depocenters in the central part of the basin where Carboniferous successions feature cyclic alternations between terrestrial and marginal marine strata. In contrast, the Pennsylvanian Clifton Formation was deposited on the relatively stable New Brunswick platform and contains almost entirely terrestrial strata. Although early studies of the Clifton Formation noted a cyclic architecture, particularly within Member B, this unit has remained understudied. We provide a sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic framework for the lower 85 m of Member B and interpret our results relative to a broader regional framework. Near the base of the study interval, the highstand systems tract is composed of red floodplain mudrocks; overlying sequence boundaries are composed of calcretes and (or) channels. The transgressive systems tract and maximum flooding surface are represented by coals and aquatic bivalve-bearing mudrocks. Moving upward through the section, the architecture of the highstand systems tract remains largely unchanged while sequence-bounding paleosols become less well developed, the transgressive systems tract becomes thinner and eventually not preserved, and the maximum flooding surface is only occasionally preserved, possibly represented by carbonaceous shales. These changes in cyclic architecture may be attributed to changes in the magnitude of glacioeustatic fluctuations, climate, and (or) the accommodation/sediment supply ratio. The results of this study show that the Clifton Formation represents the terrestrial/proximal endmember for cyclicity in the Maritimes Basin and provide new insight into paleotopography as a possible control on cyclothem architecture.

The arrival of the paleo–Orinoco Delta at Trinidad: The Cruse Formation delta lobes and delivery to deepwater Atlantic

2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (8) ◽  
pp. 938-968
Author(s):  
Ariana Osman ◽  
Ronald J. Steel ◽  
Ryan Ramsook ◽  
Cornel Olariu ◽  
Si Chen
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Average Height ◽  
Shelf Edge ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Orinoco Delta ◽  
Basin Floor ◽  
Shelf Margin ◽  
High Sediment

ABSTRACT Icehouse continental-shelf-margin accretion is typically driven by high-sediment-supply deltas and repeated glacio-eustatic, climate-driven sea-level changes on a ca. 100 ky time scale. The paleo–Orinoco margin is no exception to this, as the paleo–Orinoco River Delta with its high sediment load prograded across Venezuela, then into the Southern and Columbus basins of Trinidad since the late Miocene, depositing a continental-margin sedimentary prism that is > 12 km thick, 200 km wide, and 500 km along dip. The Cruse Formation (> 800 m thick; 3 My duration) records the first arrival of the paleo–Orinoco Delta into the Trinidad area. It then accreted eastwards, outwards onto the Atlantic margin, by shallow to deepwater clinoform increments since the late Miocene and is capped by a major, thick flooding interval (the Lower Forest Clay). Previous research has provided an understanding of the paleo–Orinoco Delta depositional system at seismic and outcrop scales, but a clinoform framework detailing proximal to distal reaches through the main fairway of the Southern Basin has never been built. We integrate data from 58 wells and outcrop observations to present a 3-D illustration of 15 mapped Cruse clinoforms, in order to understand the changing character of the first Orinoco clastic wedge on Trinidad. The clinoforms have an undecompacted average height of 550 m, estimated continental slope of 2.5° tapering to 1°, and a distance from shelf edge to near-base of slope of > 10 km. The clinoform framework shows trajectory changes from strong shelf-margin progradation (C10–C13) to aggradation (C14–C20) and to renewed progradation (C21–24). Cruse margin progradational phases illustrate oblique clinothem geometries that lack well-developed topsets but contain up to 70 m (200 ft) thick, deepwater slope channels. This suggests a high supply of sediment during periods of repeated icehouse rise and fall of eustatic sea level, with fall outpacing subsidence rates at times, and delivery of sand to the deepwater region of the embryonic Columbus channel region. Also, evidence of wholesale shelf-edge collapse and canyon features seen in outcrop strongly suggest that deepwater conduits for sediment dispersal and bypass surfaces for Cruse basin-floor fans do exist. The change to a topset aggradational pattern with a rising shelf trajectory may be linked to increased subsidence associated with eastward migration of the Caribbean plate. The Cruse-margin topsets were dominated by mixed fluvial–wave delta lobes that were effective in delivery of sands to the basin floor. The preservation of a fluvial regime of the delta may have been impacted by basin geometry which partly sheltered the area from the open Atlantic wave energy at the shelf edge. Ultimately, understanding shelf-edge migration style as well as process-regime changes during cross-shelf transits of the delta will help to predict the location of bypassed sands and their delivery to deepwater areas.

The basal unconformity of the Nanaimo Group, southwestern British Columbia: a Late Cretaceous storm-swept rocky shoreline

2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (8) ◽  
pp. 1165-1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
P D Johnstone ◽  
P S Mustard ◽  
J A MacEachern
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Storm Activity ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Accommodation Space ◽  
Facies Associations ◽  
Intrusive Rocks ◽  
Coastal Cliffs ◽  
Sandstone Facies ◽  
High Sediment

The Turonian to Santonian Comox Formation forms the basal unit of the Nanaimo Group. In the southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia, the Comox Formation nonconformably overlies Devonian metavolcanic and Jurassic intrusive rocks and is interpreted to reflect a rocky foreshore reworked by waves and ultimately drowned during transgression. The nonconformity displays a relief of metres to tens of metres. Basal deposits vary in thickness, as does the facies character along the several kilometres of paleoshoreline studied. In the study area, three distinct but related environments are expressed, typical of a complex rocky shoreline with headlands and protected coves. Crudely stratified conglomerates represent gravel-dominated fans characterized by debris-flow processes, building out from local coastal cliffs and gullies directly onto the rocky shoreline. Fine-grained basal units represent shoreline environments protected from higher energy shoreline processes, presumably in small embayments. Sandstone facies associations reflect storm-dominated shoreface environments. The unusual thickness and coarseness of these shoreface intervals suggest a combination of increasing accommodation space, proximal and high sediment supply, and high frequency and energy of storm activity. This, in turn, suggests that the majority of the shoreline was exposed to the full effects of large, open-ocean storms. This interpretation differs from most previous models for the lower Nanaimo Group, which suggest that deposition occurred in more sheltered strait or bay environments.

scholarly journals Multiscale Erosion Surfaces of the Organic-Rich Barnett Shale, Fort Worth Basin, USA

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed O. Abouelresh
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Energy Conditions ◽  
Barnett Shale ◽  
Sequence Stratigraphic ◽  
Fort Worth Basin ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Genetic Types ◽  
Sea Level Fluctuation ◽  
Associated Surfaces

The high frequency and diversity of erosion surfaces throughout the Barnett Shale give a unique view into the short-duration stratigraphic intervals that were previously much more difficult to detect in such fine-grained rocks. The erosion surfaces in Barnett Shale exhibit variable relief (5.08–61 mm) which commonly consists of shelly laminae, shale rip-up clasts, reworked mud intraclasts, phosphatic pellets, and/or diagenetic minerals (dolomite and pyrite) mostly with clay-rich mudstone groundmass. Several factors control this lithological variation, including the energy conditions, rate of relative sea-level fluctuation, rate of sedimentation, sediment influx, and the lithofacies type of the underlying as well as the overlying beds. The erosional features and their associated surfaces make them serve at least in part as boundaries between different genetic types of deposits but with different scales according to their dependence on base level and/or sediment supply. Accordingly, the studied erosion surfaces of the Barnett Shale can be grouped into three different scales of sequence stratigraphic surfaces: sequence-scale surfaces, parasequence-scale surfaces, and within trend-scale surfaces.

scholarly journals Reply to ‘Comment on The geometry and stratigraphic position of the Maassluis Formation (western Netherlands and south-eastern North Sea)’

2005 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-53
Author(s):  
H.S.M. Jansen
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Coastal Sediments ◽  
The West ◽  
Sequence Stratigraphic ◽  
Normal Transition ◽  
Stratigraphic Model ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Age Estimates

In their comment, Wesselingh et al. say that pronounced glacioeustacy renders the detailed discussions about age intervals obsolete and that they fail to see the application of the Haq curves for age estimates in the Maassluis Formation can make much sense. We would argue the following: - Eustacy and sediment supply are the driving forces behind sequence formation and configuration. As our model shows, the overall picture of the Pliocene/Pleistocene along our transect is one of an outbuilding system, going from open marine to terrestrial deposits, which is a classic sequence stratigraphic configuration.- The lower part of the Maassluis Formation in the Noordwijk borehole lies below an unconformity and consists of open marine sediments as opposed to the coastal sediments of the upper part. Since it is the normal transition over a sequence boundary, there is reason to speculate about which sequences we are looking at here and what their age is. There is a large sedimentary wedge to the west of Noordwijk that is missing in the Noordwijk borehole.- The glacial-interglacial cycles Meijer et al. (in press) refer to are likely to be better expressed in the coastal part of the formation, i.e. from ca. 2.55 Ma. This is also the part of the formation where micro-vertebrates will be found, not the (older) marine part. These cycles do not alter the overall sequence stratigraphic model, they add a climatic overprint of smaller sedimentary cycles.

HIGH RESOLUTION SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY, RESERVOIR ANALOGUES, AND 3D SEISMIC INTERPRETATION—APPLICATION TO EXPLORATION AND RESERVOIR DEVELOPMENT IN THE BARYULAH COMPLEX, COOPER BASIN, SOUTHWEST QUEENSLAND

2002 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 511 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.C. Lang ◽  
N. Ceglar ◽  
S. Forder ◽  
G. Spencer ◽  
J. Kassan
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
3D Seismic ◽  
Predictive Tool ◽  
Seismic Attribute ◽  
Sequence Stratigraphic ◽  
Geological Interpretation ◽  
Reservoir Development ◽  
Cooper Basin

Gas exploration and reservoir development in the Baryulah area, Cooper Basin, southwest Queensland has focussed on the fluvial-lacustrine, Permian coal-bearing Patchawarra Formation, Murteree Shale, Epsilon and Toolachee Formations. Geological interpretation of drilling and 3D seismic data has benefitted from integration of sequence stratigraphic concepts with the judicious use of reservoir analogues and seismic attribute mapping. Initially, a coherent regional chronostratigraphic framework was established, based on broad palynological zonations, and correlating extensive lacustrine flooding surfaces and unconformities, tied to 3D seismic reflectors. This framework was subdivided by using local key surfaces identified on wireline logs (usually high-gamma shaly intervals overlying coals), resulting in recognition of numerous high-resolution genetic units. Wireline log character, calibrated by cores from analogous fields around the Cooper Basin and supported by analogue studies, forms the basis for a logfacies scheme that recognises meandering fluvial channels, crevasse splays, floodplain/basin, and peat swamps/mires. Fluvial stacking patterns (aggradational, retrogradational or progradational), produced by the ratio of sediment supply to accommodation within each genetic unit, were used to help determine depositional systems tracts (alluvial lowstand, transgressive, or highstand) and likely reservoir connectivity. Log signature maps for genetic intervals form the basis of palaeogeographic mapping. Modern and ancient depositional analogues were used to constrain likely facies distribution and fluvial channel belt widths. Syndepositional structural features, net-to-gross trends, and seismic attribute mapping are used to guide the scale, distribution and orientation of potential reservoir trends. When used in conjunction with structural and production data, the palaeogeographic maps help develop stratigraphic trap play concepts, providing a predictive tool for locating exploration or appraisal drilling opportunities.

scholarly journals Are seismic/depositional sequences chronostratigraphic units?

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 264-264
Author(s):  
R. W. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Depositional Sequences ◽  
Sequence Stratigraphic ◽  
Time Correlations ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
Global Events ◽  
Depositional Systems ◽  
Depositional Models

Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis is claimed to be a “new globally valid system of stratigraphy … a precise methodology to subdivide, correlate and map sedimentary rocks” (Vail et al., 1991, p. 622). Sequence stratigraphic units, such as depositional sequences, depositional systems tracts, and parasequences, are time-equivalent rocks of specific durations controlled by cyclical changes in sediment supply related to eustasy. These units are bounded by regionally extensive unconformities with erosion beneath and onlapping strata above, or by physical surfaces separating either different patterns of stratal geometry or shoaling-up facies units. According to this school, precise correlations are based upon inferred time relations within depositional models.Several key concepts of sequence stratigraphy have their origins in early geological studies. For many years geologists have separated time-equivalent strata by regional unconformities related to changes in climate or sea level, e.g., J. Woodward, 1695 and T. C. Chamberline, 1909. Stratal surfaces, such as bentonites and limestone markers, have been used in place of fossils for time correlations since the first wells were drilled. Stratigraphic models have strongly influenced how we correlate strata since the time of William Smith.Two developments are, indeed, new and have sparked the current resurgence in stratigraphic research. One is the seismic technology to test the physical continuity of strata on a regional scale (50-100 km), and to test the stratal geometry of genetically related depositional packages. The second is the chart of global coastal onlap events and eustasy (Haq et al., 1988).Some key research problems are: (1) how to identify unique, time-significant stratal surfaces; (2) how to test their physical continuity; (3) how to test the time relations within depositional models; and (4) how to identify the unique, time-significant global events recorded in the stratigraphic record. These stratigraphic concepts can be tested by graphic correlation, which is a powerful technique of high precision, quantitative stratigraphy. Its application in Cretaceous sections of the Gulf Coast and Oman, and in the Plio-Pliestocene of the Gulf Coast aids the distinction between synchronous surfaces and diachronous boundaries.

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