Abstract Understanding and predicting architecture and facies distribution of syn-rift carbonates is challenging owing to complex control by climatic, tectonic, biological and sedimentological factors. CarboCAT is a three-dimensional stratigraphic forward model of carbonate and mixed carbonate–siliciclastic systems that has recently been developed to include processes controlling carbonate platform development in extensional settings. CarboCAT has been used here to perform numerical experiment investigations of the various processes and factors hypothesized to control syn-rift carbonates sedimentation. Models representing three tectonic scenarios have been calculated and investigated, to characterize facies distribution and architecture of carbonate platforms developed on half-grabens, horsts and transfer zones. For each forward stratigraphic model, forward seismic models have also been calculated, so that modelled stratal geometries presented as synthetic seismic images can be directly compared with seismic images of subsurface carbonate strata. The CarboCAT models and synthetic seismic images corroborate many elements of the existing syn-rift and early-post-rift conceptual model, but also expand these models by describing how platform architecture and spatial facies distributions vary along-strike between hanging-wall, footwall and transfer zone settings. Synthetic seismic images show how platform margins may appear in seismic data, showing significant differences in overall seismic character between prograding and backstepping stacking patterns.

Abstract Little is known about the effect of thrusting on lithological and petrophysical properties of reservoir sandstone. Here we use field observations, probe permeability measurements and thin-section analysis along ten transects from the Muddy Mountain thrust contact downwards into the underlying Jurassic Aztec Sandstone to evaluate the nature and extent of petrophysical and microstructural changes caused by the thrusting. The results reveal a decimetre- to metre-thick low-permeable (≤50 mD) and indurated (0–3% porosity) zone immediately beneath the thrust contact in which dominant microscale processes, in decreasing order of importance, are (1) cataclasis with local fault gouge formation; (2) pressure solution; and (3) very limited cementation. From this narrow zone the petrophysical and microstructural effect of the thrusting decreases gradually downwards into a friable, highly porous ( c. 25%) and permeable (≤2 D) sandstone some 50–150 m below the thrust, in which strain is localized into deformation band populations. In general, the petrophysical properties of the sandstone as a result of overthrusting reveal little impact in overall primary reservoir quality below some tens of metres into the footwall, except for the relatively minor baffling effect of deformation bands.

Abstract: Normal faults grow via a sympathetic increase in their displacement and length (‘isolated model’) or by rapid establishment of their near-final length prior to significant displacement accumulation (‘constant-length model’). The isolated model has dominated the structural geology literature for >30 years, although some 3D seismic data-based studies support the constant-length model. Because they make different predictions regarding rift development, and earthquake size and recurrence intervals in areas of continental extension, it is critical to test these models with data from natural examples. Here we outline a range of techniques that constrain the kinematics of synsedimentary normal faults and thus test competing fault growth models. We then apply these techniques to three seismically imaged faults, showing that, in general, they grew in accordance with the constant-length model, although periods of relatively minor tip propagation and coeval displacement accumulation, characteristics more consistent with the isolated model, also occurred. We argue that analysis of growth strata represents the best way to test competing fault growth models; most studies utilizing this approach support the constant-length fault model, suggesting it may be more widely applicable than is currently assumed. It is plausible that the very early development of large faults is, however, characterized by the development of faults that, pre-linkage, grow in accordance with the isolated model; we may simply lack the data resolution, especially in the subsurface, to resolve this very early stage of fault growth.

Abstract Relay ramps associated with overlapping faults are commonly regarded as efficient conduits for fluid flow across potentially sealing intra-reservoir fault zones. The current study demonstrates that structural heterogeneity in the often anomalously wide damage zone of relay ramps may represent potential baffles to intra-ramp fluid flow. A network of ramp-parallel, ramp-diagonal and curved cataclastic deformation bands causes compartmentalization of the ramp studied in Arches National Park, Utah. Harmonic average calculations demonstrate that, although single deformation bands have little or no effect on effective permeability, the presence of even a very small number of low-permeable deformation band clusters could reduce along-ramp effective permeability by more than three orders of magnitude. Thus, although relay zones may maintain large-scale geometric communication, the results of this study demonstrate that caution must be exercised when considering relay ramps as fluid conduits across sealing faults in a production situation. Although relay ramps clearly represent effective migration pathways for hydrocarbons over geological time, the extent to which they conduct fluids in a production situation is more uncertain. Quantitative approaches include adjusting the transmissibility multipliers for faults in reservoir models to allow for increased cross-fault flow. If, however, the effect of internal structural heterogeneity is not taken into consideration, this type of adjustment may lead to gross overestimation of the effect of relay ramps. Sedimentology, stratigraphy, burial history and deformation mechanisms are some of the controlling factors for the formation of such structural heterogeneities.