This publication reflects a growing appreciation of the extent to which turbidite depositional system development is fundamentally affected by basin-floor topography. In the many turbidite and turbidite hydrocarbon reservoirs, depositional patterns have been moderately to strongly confined by pre-existing slopes; thus ‘submarine fans’ may be far from fan-shaped where constrained by significant bathymetric features. This volume examines aspects of sediment dispersal and accumulation in deep-water systems where sea-floor topography has exerted a decisive control on deposition, and explores the associated controls on hydrocarbon reservoir architecture and heterogeneity.

The papers presented here offer a global perspective, which is wide-ranging in terms of approach as well as location, including contrasting reviews and case studies of outcrop, subsurface, modern and experimental systems. This book will be of use both to academic geologists and to geoscience professionals in industry dealing with characterization and modelling of deep-water clastic reservoirs.