Environmental Controls on Depositional Patterns of Isolated Carbonate Platforms

Environmental Controls on Depositional Patterns of Isolated Carbonate Platforms PDF Author: Jeremy M. Kerr
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This dissertation explores the influence of the environment on the lateral spatial patterning of facies in modern isolated carbonate platforms through six studies. The first study describes the creation of a database of benthic habitat and bathymetric maps derived from multispectral satellite imagery and the field data used calibrate and validate the mapping algorithms. The second study develops and assesses a new approach for remotely-deriving water depth from multispectral satellite imagery without the need for ground-truth information. The third study identifies a criterion for distinguishing between facies belts and mosaics and deploys the criterion to investigate the co-occurrence of these arrangements within modern carbonate depositional systems. The fourth study explores the geologic history of an isolated carbonate platform in the Bahamas, Cay Sal Bank, to understand why the lateral spatial pattering observed in this site differs from the patterns observed in neighboring platforms. The fifth study explores the distribution of carbonate facies in relation to wave energy and water depth for two detached ramps in the Red Sea, Ras Al-Qisbah and Al Wajh. The last study investigates the recovery of scleractinian communities along the coasts of two islands in the Galapagos archipelago, Darwin and Wennman (Wolf) Islands, following a large-scale disturbance in the 1980s. Together, these six studies provide new insight into the spatial patterning of facies within modern carbonate depositional systems and the influence of the environment on the observed arrangements.

Environmental Controls on Depositional Patterns of Isolated Carbonate Platforms

Environmental Controls on Depositional Patterns of Isolated Carbonate Platforms PDF Author: Jeremy M. Kerr
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This dissertation explores the influence of the environment on the lateral spatial patterning of facies in modern isolated carbonate platforms through six studies. The first study describes the creation of a database of benthic habitat and bathymetric maps derived from multispectral satellite imagery and the field data used calibrate and validate the mapping algorithms. The second study develops and assesses a new approach for remotely-deriving water depth from multispectral satellite imagery without the need for ground-truth information. The third study identifies a criterion for distinguishing between facies belts and mosaics and deploys the criterion to investigate the co-occurrence of these arrangements within modern carbonate depositional systems. The fourth study explores the geologic history of an isolated carbonate platform in the Bahamas, Cay Sal Bank, to understand why the lateral spatial pattering observed in this site differs from the patterns observed in neighboring platforms. The fifth study explores the distribution of carbonate facies in relation to wave energy and water depth for two detached ramps in the Red Sea, Ras Al-Qisbah and Al Wajh. The last study investigates the recovery of scleractinian communities along the coasts of two islands in the Galapagos archipelago, Darwin and Wennman (Wolf) Islands, following a large-scale disturbance in the 1980s. Together, these six studies provide new insight into the spatial patterning of facies within modern carbonate depositional systems and the influence of the environment on the observed arrangements.

Physical, Chemical, and Biological Controls on the Stratigraphic Evolution and Spatial Variability of an Isolated Carbonate Platform

Physical, Chemical, and Biological Controls on the Stratigraphic Evolution and Spatial Variability of an Isolated Carbonate Platform PDF Author: Brian Michael Kelley
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Isolated carbonate platforms can provide substantial hydrocarbon reservoirs because they develop significant depositional relief and are commonly buried by relatively impermeable basin-filling sediments. Consequently, there is ongoing interest in the mechanisms that control their morphology and facies distributions. Because the deposition of carbonate sediments is influenced by a complex interaction of environmental conditions that vary both temporally and spatially across depositional systems, the relative importance of controls on platform morphology is difficult to constrain. The key to developing a better understanding is to recognize causal links between changes in oceanographic conditions and variability in resulting geometries. Unfortunately, most studies of exposed carbonate platforms limit the ability to discern influences beyond fluctuations in relative sea level, because they are based on a single cross section of a platform and record deposition during periods of relative stasis in ocean chemistry and biotic evolution. In this study, however, I examined cross-sectional exposures from three geographic sectors of the Late Permian to Late Triassic Great Bank of Guizhou (GBG) in the Nanpanjiang Basin of south China. Deposition on the GBG spanned the tumultuous transition from Paleozoic to Mesozoic oceans, providing a rare opportunity to evaluate the influence of changes in carbonate factory type during a period of significant global change. In addition, I compared multiple exposures of the platform to determine the differential impact of basin-wide controls such as external sediment supply and antecedent topography on the evolution of platform geometries. The integrated analysis of satellite imagery, field mapping, chemostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and petrography shows that chemical and biological controls associated with end-Paleozoic extinction and environmental disturbance led to changes in carbonate factory type that contributed to significant temporal variability in the platform geometry. The GBG initiated with small patch reefs in the latest Permian, was dominated by microbial carbonates in the immediate aftermath of extinction, progressed to a low-relief bank with oolite shoal margins in the earliest Triassic when skeletal organisms were rare, developed a high-relief morphology with steep slopes when transport was limited by rapid cementation, and later established a reef-rimmed margin as environmental conditions allowed for the return of abundant skeletal organisms in benthic environments. In contrast, physical controls, including antecedent topography and external sediment supply, produced significant spatial variability in the GBG. In the northwestern sector, over-steepening led to the development of an erosional escarpment and bypass margin following an initial interval of Early Triassic progradation over a shallow basin floor. In the northeastern sector, a similar pattern was disrupted by Middle Triassic influx of siliciclastic sediments that raised the basin floor, reduced topographic relief, and provided a structural foundation for multiple episodes of progradation and the retention of an accretionary margin. In the southwestern sector, an adjacent deep basin established significant topographic relief, eliminating the structural support for progradation and leading to large-scale sector collapse of the platform margin. This study provides causal links between depositional environments and resulting geometries and shows that changes in carbonate factory type, differences in antecedent topography, and the pattern and timing of external sediment supply have a significant impact on the stratigraphic evolution of isolated carbonate platforms.

Seismic Characterization of Carbonate Platforms and Reservoirs

Seismic Characterization of Carbonate Platforms and Reservoirs PDF Author: J. Hendry
Publisher: Geological Society of London
ISBN: 1786205394
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Modern seismic data have become an essential toolkit for studying carbonate platforms and reservoirs in impressive detail. Whilst driven primarily by oil and gas exploration and development, data sharing and collaboration are delivering fundamental geological knowledge on carbonate systems, revealing platform geomorphologies and how their evolution on millennial time scales, as well as kilometric length scales, was forced by long-term eustatic, oceanographic or tectonic factors. Quantitative interrogation of modern seismic attributes in carbonate reservoirs permits flow units and barriers arising from depositional and diagenetic processes to be imaged and extrapolated between wells. This volume reviews the variety of carbonate platform and reservoir characteristics that can be interpreted from modern seismic data, illustrating the benefits of creative interaction between geophysical and carbonate geological experts at all stages of a seismic campaign. Papers cover carbonate exploration, including the uniquely challenging South Atlantic pre-salt reservoirs, seismic modelling of carbonates, and seismic indicators of fluid flow and diagenesis.

Controls on Carbonate Platform and Reef Development

Controls on Carbonate Platform and Reef Development PDF Author: Jeff Lukasik
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Carbonate platforms and reefs emerge, grow and die in response to intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms forced primarily by tectonics, oceanography, climate, ecology and eustasy. These mechanisms, or controls, create the physical, biological and chemical signals accountable for the myriad of carbonate depositional responses that, together, form the complex depositional systems present in the modern and ancient settings. If we are to fully comprehend these systems, it is critical to ascertain which controls ultimately govern the "life cycle" of carbonate platforms and reefs and understand how these signals are recorded and preserved. Deciphering which signals produce a dominant sedimentological response from the plethora of physical and biological information generated from superimposed regional to global-scale controls is critical to achieving this goal. With this understanding, it may be possible to extract common time- and space-independent depositional responses to specific mechanisms that may, ultimately, be used in a productive sense. Extensive research on a wide variety of carbonate platform and reefal systems in the past few decades has provided the foundation and understanding necessary to take carbonate research to a new level. With assistance from rapidly advancing computer software and an increasing use of cross-disciplinary integration, carbonate research is shifting from description and morphological analysis towards a science that is more focused on the assessment of process and genetic relationships. The aim of this special publication is to present a cross section of recent research that shows this evolution from a variety of perspectives and scales using examples distributed throughout the Phanerozoic.

Controls on Isolated Carbonate Platform Evolution and Demise, Central Luconia Province, South China Sea

Controls on Isolated Carbonate Platform Evolution and Demise, Central Luconia Province, South China Sea PDF Author: Sergio Olave Hoces
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Numerous isolated carbonate platforms developed in the Central Luconia Province of offshore Sarawak (during Middle to Late Miocene time). Fault-bounded highs produced largely by extensional deformation and later overprinted by strike-slip deformation provided substrates for the platforms and affected their growth histories. Flooding of these structural highs at ~16.5 Ma initiated carbonate sedimentation nearly simultaneously across the area. Later, third-order sea-level fluctuations and extrinsic factors such as differential subsidence, paleowind patterns and siliciclastic influx then controlled the internal architecture of the platforms. 2-D regional seismic lines, publicdomain data and published literature were used to analyze growth patterns and demise of carbonate platforms across the study area. Five Growth Stages were recognized in the carbonate platforms based on seismic facies analysis and stratigraphic relationships between reflectors. Platforms from the southeastern part of Central Luconia are thicker and larger than platforms located toward the central and northwestern areas, which reflect greater long-term tectonic subsidence to the southeast. Additionally, northwestward prograding siliciclastic sediments from mainland Borneo caused additional flexural subsidence in the eastern part of the area and environmental deterioration for platforms located beyond the range of active siliciclastic sedimentation. Both of these factors reduced the growth potential of platforms and thus subdued carbonate development. Platform termination was regionally diachronous and was produced in two steps. The first platforms drowned (~12.5-9.7 Ma) were in the eastern parts of the study area which were affected by incoming siliciclastic sediments and high local subsidence. Platforms drowned later (~6.3-5.5 Ma) were caused by a rapid sea-level rise combined with an intense local subsidence. Carbonate accumulation rates were measured between intraplatform markers, resulting in a trend that indicates a decrease in sedimentation rate with the square root of time. Comparisons between Central Luconia carbonates and age-equivalent carbonate platforms elsewhere in East Natuna Basin showed that Central Luconia carbonate platforms were drowned earlier (latest late Miocene time) than East Natuna carbonate platforms (Early Pliocene time).

Carbonate Platforms (Special Publication 9 of the IAS)

Carbonate Platforms (Special Publication 9 of the IAS) PDF Author: Maurice E. Tucker
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780632027583
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This volume also discusses the computer modelling of carbonate cycles and sequence analysis. This will prove an invaluable text for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students in the earth sciences in general and will also be of value to the professional researcher. Carbonate platforms contains contributions from an international authorship and the volume has been edited by one of the most respected names in the earth sciences. Areas covered include; early rifting deposition; examples from carbonate sequences of Sardinia (Cambrian) and Tuscany (Triassic-Jurassic), Italy; geometry and evolution of platform-margin bioclastic shoals, late Dinantian (Mississippian), Derbyshire, UK; cyclic sedimentation in cabonate and mixed carbonate/clastic environments; four simulation programs for a desktop computer; middle Triassic carbonate ramp systems in the Catalan Basis, N.E. Spain; facies, cycles, depositional sequencies and controls; stages in the evolution of late Triassic and Jurassic platform carbonates; western margin of the Subalpine basin, Ardech, France. The formation and drowning of isolated carbonate platforms; tectonic and ecologic control of the Northern Apennines; controls on Upper Jurassic carbonate build up development in the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal; Hauterivian to Lower Aptian carbonate shelf sedimentation and sequence stratigraphy in the Jura and northern Subalpine chains (southeastern France and Swiss Jura); basement structural controls on Mesozoic carbonate facies in northeastern Mexico; the Aptian-Albian carbonate episode of the Basque-Cantabrian Basis (Northern Spain); general characteristics, controls and evolution; response of the Arabian carbonate platform margin slope to orogenic closing of an ocean basin, Cretaceous, Oman.

Controls on Carbonate Platform and Basin Development

Controls on Carbonate Platform and Basin Development PDF Author: Paul D. Crevello
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
This volume covers many subjects relative to geology of carbonate platforms and adjoining slopes and basins. A preliminary section based on principles of deposition and computer modeling studies is followed by a group of a dozen papers devoted to examples of carbonate platforms on passive cratonal margins resuting from rifting.The volume also considers halos of carbonate developed as a fringe around the pericratonic Permian basin as well as some examples of isolated offshore platforms.

Carbonate Depositional Environments

Carbonate Depositional Environments PDF Author: Peter A. Scholle
Publisher: AAPG
ISBN: 0891813101
Category : Carbonate rocks
Languages : en
Pages : 694

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Book Description
This is the book you need to improve your interpretations of carbonates. Using a systematic treatment of the entire subject of carbonate depositional environments, this unique book is specifically designed for use by the non-specialist -- the petroleum geologist or field geologist -- who uses carbonate depositional environments in facies reconstructions and environmental intepretations. This classic work, covering settings from non-marine to deep water, focuses on the recognition of depositional environments with extenive use of color diagrams and photographs of sedimentary structures and facies assemblages. Although the ultimate purpose of this text is to improve exploration for oil, gas, and mineral deposits, it also includes environments not normally considered to be particularly prospective for oil and gas in an attempt to provide as complete a framework as possible for recognition of environments. Suitable for use as a textbook, this book is also an invaluable reference fo the specialist or advanced graduate student. It provides perspective on large-scale influences on carbonate depositional envionments such as tectonic patterns, fluctuations of sea level, variations of climate, and evolutionary patterns of organisms. --

Shelf Sediment Transport: Process and Pattern

Shelf Sediment Transport: Process and Pattern PDF Author: Donald J. P. Swift
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 684

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Book Description
This volume contains papers presented in a symposium on Shelf Sediment Transport conducted at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America held in Washington, D.C., November 1971.

Controls on Facies Mosaics of Carbonate Platforms: a Case Study from the Oxfordian of the Swiss Jura

Controls on Facies Mosaics of Carbonate Platforms: a Case Study from the Oxfordian of the Swiss Jura PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Modern shallow-water carbonate systems commonly display a complex pattern of juxtaposed depositional environments with a patchy facies distribution (facies mo saics). On ancient carbonate platforms, the reconstruction of lateral facies distribution is often hampered not only by discontinuous outcrop but also by lack of suffi ciently high time resolution. This case study from the Oxfordian (Late Jurassic) of the Swiss Jura Mountains demonstrates a way to improve the temporal and spatial resolution for the interpretation of carbonate rocks. Sequence-stratigraphic and cyclostratigraphic analyses have been performed that provide a basis for defi ning depositional sequences, which formed through sea-level changes that were induced by the 400-, 100- and 20-kyr orbital cycles. On the 100-kyr scale, sequence boundaries are well developed and can be correlated between sections. However, identifi cation and correlation of sequences related to the 20-kyr cycle may be diffi cult if local processes overprinted the record of orbitally controlled sea-level changes. The reconstruction of facies distribution along selected time lines gives a dynamic picture of platform evolution with time steps of a few ten thousand years and helps to interpret the controlling factors such as differential subsidence, low-amplitude eustatic sea-level fl uctuations, climate and ecology of the carbonate-producing organisms. Reefs and ooid shoals developed preferentially on topographic highs and thus accentuated platform morphology. Siliciclastics were shed onto the platform during sea-level falls and increased rainfall in the hinterland; their distribution was controlled by platform morphology. Siliciclastics and associated nutrients hindered carbonate production and thus indirectly infl uenced platform morphology. In addition to these controls, random processes acted on the smaller-scale facies relationships. Sedimentation rates can be estimated for each facies type over time spans of 10- 0 kyr. They.