Abstract This chapter presents three groups of reservoir simulation models that address aspects of fluid flow in deltaic systems of lacustrine basins. These models are based on companion field-based geologic investigations of the Eocene Green River Formation in Nine Mile Canyon of the Uinta Basin, Utah ( Taylor and Ritts, 2004 ; Moore et al., 2012 ). The first group consists of models based on two-dimensional (2-D) geologic descriptions of outcrops in Parley Canyon ( Taylor and Ritts, 2004 ). These descriptions, combined with petrophysical data from measured sections to produce a three-dimensional (3-D) model based on one-dimensional (1-D) and 2-D data. Because results of the first simulation models demonstrated the importance of channels in the plumbing of such lacustrine deltaic systems, a second group of simulation models was constructed to address the impact of heterogeneity within individual channels on flow across and along channels. The data used to generate these channel models are entirely synthetic, although the geometries involved were digitized from sketches drawn by a geologist and guided by relationships observed in the Uinta Basin study area. The third group of models represents the northwest Argyle Canyon area and, unlike the Parley Canyon model, was constructed from a third geologic data set that was produced by integrating light detection and ranging (LIDAR) scanning and correlation with geologic description of multiple cliff outcrops of varying orientation in the field ( Moore et al., 2012 ). Together, these models demonstrate dominant characteristics that control production efficiency of reservoirs in lacustrine deltaic settings and also demonstrate how improving geologic characterization improves the 3-D modeling of such systems.

Abstract The site encompasses that portion of the Kolob Canyon ssection of Zion National Park, in southwestern Utah, that is visible from the 5-mi-long (8-km) park highway (Fig. 1). The park road is suitable for passenger cars and other vehicles. Kolob Canyons offer spectacular views of slopes that show the effects of erosion on the thick massive Navajo Sandstone. In addition, exposures in Taylor Creek, LaVerkin Creek, and their tributaries reveal details of stratigraphy and structure. Much of the Mesozoic section is exposed, from the basal Timpoweap Limestone of Early Triassic age to the Jurassic Carmel Formation, inaccessible at the tops of the Navajo cliffs. Structurally, two episodes of tectonic activity’ are evident. The Late Cretaceus Sevier orogeny produced the Kanarra fold, with effects throughout the site. Most interesting perhaps is the Taylor Creek thrust zone, on the eastern limb of this fold. The Late Cenozoic Hurricane fault scarp forms the western boundary of the area, and uplift along this fault set up conditions that led to the erosional phenomena.

Abstract This study provides an assessment of two source-to-sink sediment routing systems of the Early Cretaceous and highlights sedimentologic changes that occurred in response to major tectonic reorganization of the eastern Gulf of Mexico during the Valanginian-Hauterivian stages. Depth-imaged 2D and 3D seismic data, well log correlation, sand grain size, and detrital zircon U-Pb data obtained from the Valanginian intervals of the cores of a key well, facilitates source-to-sink analysis of Early Cretaceous deep-water deposits, as well as construction of a new depositional model of Hosston equivalent-siliciclastics previously investigated only in the western Gulf of Mexico onshore areas. U-Pb dating of detrital zircon grains suggests that Hosston siliciclastics observed in the 200-km-long base-of-slope sandy progradational delta-fed apron at the Florida Escarpment originated in a peninsular Florida source terrane – the Ocala Arch. Interpretation of 3D seismic data with nearby well control also allows conclusions to be drawn about the Appalachian-sourced Hosston fan system in Mississippi Canyon. This Appa-lachian-sourced sandy fan is believed to have terminated updip of a series of salt-related asymmetric expulsion rollovers, although we know sediment accommodation in these inverted basins was not confined to the Valanginian-Hauterivian age Hosston interval and extended from the Jurassic Cotton Valley-Bossier supersequence to the Late Cretaceous Navarro-Taylor supersequence. Two plausible models of Appa-lachian-sourced fan length are considered, incorporating calculations of salt rafting to estimate a best-case scenario fan length of 90-km, while a more probable fan geometry is determined from seismic observations and well control, yielding a Valanginian-Hauterivian submarine fan of 70-km length. The study presents a new paleogeographic model, with special focus on the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the interpreted sand-prone fan and progradational delta-fed apron. It also provides a robust model for source to sink transport during a critical phase of Gulf of Mexico basin evolution. The shorter fan length calculated in this study suggest the majority of asymmetric expulsion rollovers in Mississippi Canyon are either sandstone-poor or were sourced from a different, likely younger, source-to-sink system ( e.g. , Late Cretaceous, Cenomanian-Turonian-age Tuscaloosa fluvial system).