The Three-Dimensional Facies Architecture of Terrigenous Clastic Sediments and its Implications for Hydrocarbon Discovery and Recovery
While there has been much interest in recent years in concepts of sequence stratigraphy, this book focuses on stratigraphic units that are, in general, an order of magnitude smaller than sequences. A knowledge of such architectural detail is of considerable significance in the development of detailed, scaled facies models for depositional environments, and is of paramount importance in the efficient design of advanced petroleum recovery projects. This book is the outcome of a SEPM Research Symposium held at the annual meeting of the Society in San Antonio, Texas, April 1989. The intent of the meeting was to bring together modern research on facies architecture, and to apply this research to the investigation of reservoir heterogeneities and production problems.
Regional to Subregional Facies Architecture of River-Dominated Deltas in The Alberta Subsurface, Upper Cretaceous Dunvegan Formation
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Published:January 01, 1991
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CiteCitation
Janok P. Bhattacharya, 1991. "Regional to Subregional Facies Architecture of River-Dominated Deltas in The Alberta Subsurface, Upper Cretaceous Dunvegan Formation", The Three-Dimensional Facies Architecture of Terrigenous Clastic Sediments and its Implications for Hydrocarbon Discovery and Recovery, Andrew D. Miall, Noel Tyler
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Abstract
The Dunvegan Formation (mid-Cenomanian) comprises a thick clastic wedge deposited in the West Alberta foreland basin. This wedge consists of a complex series of interbedded shales, siltstones, and sandstones and has been subdivided into seven allomembers (A-G), each separated by widespread flooding surfaces.
Allomember E consists of four offlapping, shingled, heterolithic sedimentary units that progressively built seaward to the southeast. Isolith maps of the sandstones within these shingles reveal deltaic morphologies consisting of well-developed sandy depositional lobes fed by sandy distributary channels separated by mudstone-dominated interchannel and interlobe areas. The plan-view morphologies and facies successions in the lobes are typical of prograding river-dominated delta fronts.
Superposition of sandbodies within each shingle reveals the autocyclic fashion in which the sedimentary basin was filled. The arcai pattern and scale of overlapping depositional delta lobes are similar to those of the Mississippi delta during the last 5 ka.