Browsing by Subject "Subsidence"
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Item Physical modeling of a prograding delta on a mobile substrate : dynamic interactions between progradation and deformation(2016-08) Jung, Eunsil; Kim, Wonsuck; Mohrig, David; Olariu, CornelThe subsurface architecture of a prograding delta on a mobile substrate (e.g., salt) is a product of the complex interplay between deposition and subsidence. Previous studies focused mainly on structural deformation of a salt layer in response to tectonic forcing, leaving the dynamic feedback between sedimentation and subsidence unexplored. We present results from physical experiments of delta progradation on a mobile substrate. Five carefully designed experiments were performed to understand the effects of delta progradation rate on the shape and dimension of salt deformation and associated delta deposition. All of the runs had constant sediment and water discharges, but the water depth and mobile substrate thickness varied from 1 cm to 3 cm and from 2 cm to 4 cm, respectively. The results showed that increasingly deeper water depths slowed the shoreline progradation rate, while increasingly thinner salt thickness accelerated delta progradation. The experimental results also provided a wide range of shoreline advance and subsidence rates that show changes in the shape and dimension of the salt deformation structure. Runs with fast shoreline progradation showed isolated salt domes developed internally on the delta plain and a rough platform pattern along the shoreline due to lobes built by channel flow between upwelled salt structures. However, runs with slow shoreline progradation developed long connected salt ridges around the toe of the delta, limiting sediment transport beyond the ridges. This overall pattern in salt structures is time dependent. As a delta surface grows larger and the shoreline progradational rate autogenically decreases with time, chances to develop isolated salt domes decrease but more connected long salt ridges occur. Physical modeling of a delta on a mobile substrate is important in predicting the mechanism for large-scale salt basin stratigraphy under a high sediment supply that interacts with the substrate.Item Response of minibasin subsidence to variable deposition : experiments and theory(2012-05) Kopriva, Bryant Timothy; Kim, Wonsuck; Buttles, James; Kerans, CharlesDifferential loading induced deformation of a mobile substrate (e.g., salt tectonics) is an important process for the development of accommodation space and stratigraphic architectures in intra-slope minibasins. Numerous studies of minibasin systems have focused on either the tectonic processes involved in salt body deformation or the stratigraphic interpretation of the overburden sediment deposits. This study, however, focuses on coevolution of depositional and tectonic processes and provides a new insight of the linked evolution into the stratigraphic patterns. Using a silicone polymer to simulate a viscous mobile substrate, a series of 2D experiments were conducted to explore the effects of variation in 1) sedimentation rate, 2) depositional style (intermittent sediment supply), and 3) the thickness of the deformable salt substrate on subsidence patterns and minibasin evolution. Experiments results have shown that larger initial thickness of salt substrate as well as lower sedimentation rate caused greater amounts of subsidence for a given amount of deposit. Furthermore, increase in subsidence rate was observed as sedimentation continued, while decrease in subsidence rate occurred once sedimentation ceased. Due to the linked depositional and tectonic processes, higher sediment supply resulted in relatively slower subsidence and more actively widening minibasins. Lower sediment supply was observed to have the reverse effect, resulting in higher relative subsidence and a narrow basin width. A numerical model that captures viscous flow under the deposit is also presented here. The model for minibasin formation showed the effects of interaction of the two processes (deposition and tectonics) on the development of minibasin strata in the experiments. Experimental and modeled findings have resulted in a new model of minibasin development that incorporates the effects of sedimentation rates on subsidence patterns into basin evolution.Item Tectonostratigraphic and subsidence history of the northern Llanos foreland basin of Colombia(2011-08) Campos, Henry Miguel; Mann, Paul, 1956-; Horton, Brian K.; Steel, Ronald J.; Cardozo, NestorThe Llanos foreland basin of Colombia is located along the eastern margin of the northern Andes. The Llanos basin is bounded to the north by the Mérida Andes, to the east by the Guiana shield, to the south by the Serrania de la Macarena, and to the west by the frontal foothills thrust system of the Andes (the Cordillera Oriental). The Llanos foreland basin originated in the Maastrichtian, after a post-rift period during the Mesozoic, and recorded an abrupt pulse of middle Miocene subsidence possibly in response to subduction and collision events along the Pacific margin of northwestern South America. Regional east-west shortening, driven in part by collision of the Panama arc along the Pacific margin of Colombia, has built the widest part of the northern Andes. This wide area (~600 km) includes a prominent arcuate thrust salient, the Cordillera Oriental, which overthrusts the Llanos foreland along a broad V-shaped salient that projects 40 km over the northern Llanos foreland basin. In this study, I interpret 1200 km of 2D seismic data tied to 18 wells and regional potential fields (gravity and magnetic) data. Interpreted seismic data are organized into four regional (300 to 400-km-long) transects spanning the thrust salient area of the northern Llanos basin. I performed 2D flexural modeling on the four transects in order to understand the relative contributions of flexural subsidence due to tectonic and sedimentary loading. Sedimentary backstripping was applied to the observed structure maps of six Eocene to Pleistocene interpreted horizons in the foreland basin in order to remove the effects of sedimentary and water loading. Regional subsidence curves show an increase in the rate of tectonic subsidence in the thrust salient sector of the foreland basin during the middle to late Miocene. The flexural models predict changes in the middle Miocene to recent position of the eastern limit of foreland basin sediments as well as the changing location and vertical relief of the flexurally controlled forebulge. Production areas of light oil in the thrust belt and foreland basin are located either south of the thrust salient (Cusiana, Castilla, Rubiales oilfields) or north of the salient (Guafita-Caño Limon, Arauca oilfields) but not directly adjacent to the salient apex where subsidence, source rock thicknesses, and fracturing were predicted by a previous study to be most favorable for hydrocarbons. There are no reported light oil accumulations focused on the predicted present or past positions of the forebulge, but detailed comparisons of seismic reflection data with model predictions may reveal stratigraphic onlap and/or wedging relationships that could provide possible traps for hydrocarbons.Item The effects of lateral tectonics on a fluvio-deltaic system : an application to the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta(2013-05) Kopp, Jessica Ann; Kim, Wonsuck; Mohrig, David; Hickson, ThomasDeltaic systems have long been recognized for their socioeconomic impacts as well as their high potential to trap and store hydrocarbons. The Sediment Transport and Earth-surface Process (STEP) basin at the University of Texas at Austin has the ability to create large 3D physical experiments, designed for nurturing new understanding of these systems and the parameters that influence their evolution. We explored how a laterally tilting basin influenced a prograding fluvio-deltaic system. The tilting occurs along a rotational axis, bisecting the model’s basement and allowing the delta to experience uplift in one half of basin and subsidence in the opposite half. After six experiments with a range of tilting rates, we observed that varying rates of tilting changed progradation patterns as well as the resultant stratigraphy. The tectonic tilting forced a continuous change in topset slope, which accounts for the evolving behavior of the fluvial system with regards to channel occupation and thus shoreline asymmetry. When slow tilting was applied, the delta advanced faster in the direction of uplift due to the relative decline in basin water depth. This created truncated stratigraphic intervals dominated by active channel cut and fill with thin but laterally linked channel bodies depositing finer material. Behavior was significantly different on the subsidence side of the delta; shoreline migration was stunted while the delta became primarily aggradational, depositing thicker, alternating packages of sands. During higher rates of tilting, deposition at the uplift end was quickly abandoned and instead focused on stacking conformable sequences of delta lobes in the area of increased subsidence, resulting in a complete lack of progradation in any direction. Progressively greater rates of tilting yielded more dramatic steering of channelized flow toward the area of greatest subsidence. Comparing characteristic tectonic and channel timescales proves to be a good predictor of shoreline symmetry along with sediment distribution due to differential subsidence. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that differential subsidence acting on the Ganges-Brahmaputra (G-B) system is responsible for delta asymmetry. The asymmetry in planform shoreline geometry and subsurface stratigraphy of the G-B delta system are extensively similar to the experimental results.