Sedimentary,tectonic, and sea-level controls on submarine fan and slope-apron turbidite systems

To help understand factors that influence submarine fan deposition, we outline some of the principal sedimentary, tectonic, and sea-level controls involved in deep-water sedimentation, give some data on the rates at which they operate, and evaluate their probable effects. Three depositional end-member systems, two submarine fan types (elongate and radial), and a third nonfan, slope-apron system result primarily from variations in sediment type and supply. Tectonic setting and local and global sea-level changes further modify the nature of fan growth, the distribution of facies, and the resulting vertical stratigraphic sequences.     

Response of Cenozoic turbidite system to tectonic activity and sea-level change off the Zambezi Delta

Submarine fans and turbidite systems are important and sensitive features located offshore from river deltas that archive tectonic events, regional climate, sea level variations and erosional process. Very little is known about the sedimentary structure of the 1800 km long and 400 km wide Mozambique Fan, which is fed by the Zambezi and spreads out into the Mozambique Channel. New multichannel seismic profiles in the Mozambique Basin reveal multiple feeder systems of the upper fan that have been active concurrently or consecutively since Late Cretaceous. We identify two buried, ancient turbidite systems off Mozambique in addition to the previously known Zambezi-Channel system and another hypothesized active system. The oldest part of the upper fan, located north of the present-day mouth of the Zambezi, was active from Late Cretaceous to Eocene times. Regional uplift caused an increased sediment flux that continued until Eocene times, allowing the fan to migrate southwards under the influence of bottom currents. Following the mid-Oligocene marine regression, the Beira High Channel-levee complex fed the Mozambique Fan from the southwest until Miocene times, reworking sediments from the shelf and continental slope into the distal abyssal fan. Since the Miocene, sediments have bypassed the shelf and upper fan region through the Zambezi Valley system directly into the Zambezi Channel. The morphology of the turbidite system off Mozambique is strongly linked to onshore tectonic events and the variations in sea level and sediment flux.     

Side echoes from a sinuous fan channel obscure the structure of submarine fan channel/levee systems,Amazon Fan

A high-resolution bathymetric and seismic study of sinuous midfan channels on the Amazon Fan shows that some common elements of seismic profiles across the channel/levee system may be side echoes (sideswipe) from reflective, coarse channel-floor sediments Which lie to the side of the ship track. This includes portions of a dipping zone of high-amplitude reflectors beneath the channel. If these strong echoes are side echoes rather than buried coarse sediments, there may be less coarse material present within the midfan channel/levee systems than predicted, and channel evolution is still poorly resolved. Side echoes may be common in other areas of complex deep-sea morphology.     

Physical,biological, geochemical and sedimentological controls on the ichnology of submarine canyon and slope channel systems

Sediments of the continental slope are commonly bioturbated by endo- and epibenthic organisms, particularly in and around submarine canyons and channels. This study reviews the architecture and depositional environments associated with canyons and channels on the continental slope, and assesses the key physical and chemical conditions encountered in and around these conduits. Hydrodynamic energy, concentration and quality of organic carbon, dissolved oxygen concentration and sedimentation rate are identified as key controls on the composition of benthic ecosystems in slope environments. Submarine canyons and channels focus a variety of turbid and clear-water currents, all of which serve to increase the concentration of oxygen, labile organic carbon and other nutrients, which tend to elevate the abundance and biodiversity in the seafloor sediments, compared with those of the surrounding slope. Ancient slope channel and canyon systems reflect some of the variation in ichnological assemblages that is seen in modern analogues, although processes of erosion and trace fossil preservation mean that the benthic environment is often incompletely preserved in the ancient record. By integrating current understanding of sedimentology, oceanography, biology and ichnology of slope environments it is possible to provide a first order summary of the inter-relationships between ichnology and depositional environments on the continental slope. The combination of these data has the potential to improve our understanding of changes in deep marine benthic ecosystems through geological time, and to further the use of ichnology in assessing hydrocarbon reservoir presence, quality and performance from bioturbated slope, canyon and channel-levee hydrocarbon reservoirs.     

琼东南盆地深水区新近系海底扇沉积特征与资源潜力

综合利用钻井、岩心、薄片及分析化验资料研究了琼东南盆地深水区新近系海底扇沉积特征,并利用最新的三维地震资料,通过井震精细标定、多属性融合技术、方差体切片、三维地貌砂体镂空等综合技术手段,精细刻画了海底扇砂体的空间分布特征。研究结果表明,深水区新近系海底扇是由陆架区的砂体滑塌并二次搬运形成,形成过程具有多期次性。受不同物源的影响,海底扇岩性和物性存在较大的差异。海底扇岩性及沉积构造具有砂质滑塌、碎屑流、浊流和深水底流改造的特征。海底扇的沉积微相、厚度、砂泥比和砂泥岩空间配置关系直接控制了地震振幅反射强度和频率的变化。砂体纵向叠置,横向连片,并被后期泥质水道切割分块形成多个岩性圈闭。综合分析认为,深水区海底扇砂体发育区烃源条件优越,储盖配置关系和圈闭条件良好,具备形成大中型岩性油气藏的有利条件,具有较大的油气勘探潜力。     

东海丽水凹陷西次凹明月峰组海底扇沉积特征及沉积模式

东海陆架盆地丽水凹陷古新统明月峰组发育典型的海底扇沉积,且已获得工业油气发现。该文利用现有地震地质资料,运用层序地层学理论方法,总结出丽水凹陷的海底扇沉积模式。海底扇沉积相标志包括：岩心主要表现为滑塌揉皱、包卷层理、泄水构造、块状砂岩、黑色泥岩撕裂屑、漂砾、砂注等构造;C-M图主要表现为重力流沉积特征;结构成熟度和成分成熟度中等—差。扇体地震反射结构主要为顺物源方向双向下超,垂直物源方向丘状反射特征,平面地震属性显示为典型扇形。丽水凹陷明月峰组由低位体系域、水进体系域和高位体系域组成,其中海底扇发育在低位体系域,在扇体近端发育多个下切谷,下切谷下切规模较大;坡折主要划分为断裂坡折和沉积坡折,其中断坡坡度较大,坡度7.2°左右,沉积坡折坡度较小,一般在5°左右,与下切谷相对应在谷口形成一系列的扇体,沟–坡–扇耦合关系良好。扇体规模较大,单个扇体面积最大124 km2,整个低位域由6个扇体组成,展示了丽水凹陷良好的岩性圈闭勘探前景。本次研究根据扇体的成因特点建立明月峰组低位域时期沟–坡–扇沉积模式,对指导勘探寻找出岩性圈闭和开创丽水凹陷油气勘探新局面具有一定意义。     

The Cengio submarine turbidite system of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin,Northwestern Italy

The Cengio sandstone member of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin in northwestern Italy has a conservatively estimated volume of 2.5 to 3 km³ (length: 6.4 km; width: 4.8 km; thickness: 170 m). It is interpreted as a sandstone-rich submarine fan deposit. The Cengio member consists of eight tabular depositional sandstone lobes that are 5- to 25-m thick. These lobes filled a submarine structural depression and onlap and/or pinch-out against bounding slope mudstones. The stacking of the lobe units was related to synsedimentary tectonism.     

The Hecho Eocene submarine fan system,south-central Pyrenees,Spain

The Eocene Hecho Group submarine-fan and basin-plain turbidites fill an elongate basin in the south-central Pyrenees that was tectonically active during deposition. The total volume of these sediments is about 21,000 to 26,000 km³. The bulk of the sand by-passed the fan-channel zone and was deposited in the lobe and fan-fringe environments. The stratigraphically lower part of the Hecho submarine fan was deposited during relative lowering of sea level.     

The Hecho Eocene submarine fan system, south-central Pyrenees, Spain

The Eocene Hecho Group submarine-fan and basin-plain turbidites fill an elongate basin in the south-central Pyrenees that was tectonically active during deposition. The total volume of these sediments is about 21,000 to 26,000 km³. The bulk of the sand by-passed the fan-channel zone and was deposited in the lobe and fan-fringe environments. The stratigraphically lower part of the Hecho submarine fan was deposited during relative lowering of sea level. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

The Cengio submarine turbidite system of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin, Northwestern Italy

The Cengio sandstone member of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin in northwestern Italy has a conservatively estimated volume of 2.5 to 3 km³ (length: 6.4 km; width: 4.8 km; thickness: 170 m). It is interpreted as a sandstone-rich submarine fan deposit. The Cengio member consists of eight tabular depositional sandstone lobes that are 5- to 25-m thick. These lobes filled a submarine structural depression and onlap and/or pinch-out against bounding slope mudstones. The stacking of the lobe units was related to synsedimentary tectonism. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

Late Pleistocene channel–levee development on Monterey submarine fan, central California

Much of the modern upper (proximal) Monterey fan is a channel–levee complex, the Upper Turbidite Sequence (UTS), that was deeply eroded after the channel breached a volcanic ridge to reach a deeper base level. Ages of sediment samples collected with the ALVIN submersible from the deepest outcrop within the channel–levee system, 390?m below the adjacent western levee crest, indicate that the UTS deposits accumulated at ≥1?m?ka^?1 during the last 500?ka. Neogene and Early Pleistocene sediment accumulation on the fan prior to the UTS was much slower (<0.03?m?ka^?1), and underlying turbidite systems(?) had substantially different morphologic expression(s).     

Small turbidite systems in a complex tectonic setting (SW Mediterranean Sea): morphology and growth patterns

Three small turbidite systems (Almeria, Sacratif, and Guadiaro), each tens of kilometres long, are developed in the complex morpho-structural setting of the northern Alboran Sea and have similar primary architectural elements (canyons, channel-levee systems, lobes). However, comparison reveals differences in the axial gradients of their canyons, depth/physiographic location, morphological framework, and lateral and longitudinal sedimentary shifts of turbidite deposition. The depositional architecture and sedimentary evolution from late Pliocene to Quaternary seems to be conditioned by number of submarine feeding sources (canyons), sea-level fluctuations and local tectonic (e.g. margin/canyon-channel gradients, faults). We group the Alboran turbidite systems into two models: mud/sand-rich submarine point-source and mud/sand-rich multiple submarine source ramp.     

Growth of a post-Little Ice Age submarine fan, Glacier Bay, Alaska

A small Holocene fan is forming where Queen Inlet, a hanging valley, enters West Arm fjord, Glacier Bay, Alaska. Queen fan formed in the last 80 years following retreat of the Little Ice Age glacier that filled Glacier Bay about 200 yr BP. It was built mainly by a turbidite system originating from Carroll Glacier delta, as the delta formed in the early 1900s at the head of Queen Inlet. The Late Holocene Queen fan is comparable to large Pleistocene fans that formed in the Gulf of Alaska and differs from trough-mouth fans formed by cooler climate glacier systems. Received: 7 January 1999 / Revision received: 3 June 1999     

琼东南盆地梅山组海底扇成因演化特征与勘探建议

梅山组海底扇作为中央峡谷水道之外最引人注目的大型储集体,是琼东南盆地尤其是深水区常规碎屑岩领域下一步最为重要的勘探对象。总结了琼东南盆地各凹陷钻井资料所揭示的梅山组海底扇差异分布现象,通过研究区大陆架发育特征、陆架坡折带发育特征,结合物源供给与优势海流方向,首次从宏观格局解释了琼东南盆地中央坳陷带不同凹陷海底扇发育地质背景的差异及成因,提出乐东凹陷梅山组大型海底扇主物源来自东北方向海南隆起。通过细化中中新世大海退内部次级海平面旋回特征,首次建立了本区梅山组层序充填与海平面旋回的精确对应关系,从层序成因角度厘清了梅山组各期次海底扇发育演化特征与凹陷级别的有利储层展布特征,并据此提出相应的勘探建议,指出乐东凹陷梅山组中—晚期海底扇储层风险低,是梅山组海底扇领域突破的首选区带;陵水凹陷早期海底扇圈闭有效性较好,是梅山组海底扇大规模成藏的有利勘探方向。该研究为梅山组海底扇领域的勘探部署提供了新思路。     

Autogenic controls on hybrid bed distribution in submarine lobe complexes

Hybrid beds, the deposits of sediment gravity flows that show evidence for more than one flow regime (turbulent, transitional and/or laminar), have been recognized as important components of submarine lobe deposits. A wide range of hybrid bed types have been documented, however, quantitative analysis of the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of these enigmatic bed types is rare. Here, extensive exposures integrated with research borehole data from Unit A of the Laingsburg Formation and Fan 4 of the Skoorsteenberg Formation, Ecca Group, South Africa, provide the opportunity to examine geographical and stratigraphic patterns over a range of hierarchical scales.For this purpose, >23,000 individual beds have been evaluated for deposit type and bed thickness. On average, hybrid beds make up < 5% of all events and <10% of the cumulative thickness. Lobe complex 1 (LC1) of Fan 4,Skoorsteenberg Formation, preserves a prominent geographical trend of hybrid beds becoming more prevalent towards the frontal fringes of a lobe complex (up to 33.2% of beds), whereas their proportion in proximal and medial lobe complex settings is <10%.Data from Unit A, Laingsburg Formation, show hybrid beds are less common in the basal (A.1) and top (A.6) subunits compared to A.2-A.5 in both core data sets. The bases and tops of some lobe complexes (A.2, A.3 and A.5.7) are observed to be slightly enriched in hybrid beds, whereas others (A.5.1, A.5.5 and A.6.1) show no hybrid beds in their bases, which does not conform to expected allogenically-driven distributions that predict more hybrid beds during the initiation of lobe complexes. Instead, the occurrence and distribution of hybrid beds in lobe complexes are interpreted to be controlled by autogenic processes, including flow transformation processes on the basin-floor meaning enrichment in frontal lobe fringe settings. Therefore, the 1D distribution of hybrid beds in lobe complexes reflects the dominant stacking pattern of lobes within a lobe complex, with enrichment at the base and top of lobe complexes due to overall progradational to retrogradational stacking patterns. Individual lobes show a wide range of hybrid bed distributions, due to stacking patterns of the component lobe elements. These findings highlight the importance of autogenic processes rather than allogenic controls in the distribution of hybrid beds, which has implications for reservoir evaluation and the assessment of lobe stacking patterns in 1D core data sets.     

Key controls on submarine channel development in structurally active settings

Submarine channel-levee systems commonly develop in structurally active deepwater settings. Despite their widespread development in such settings, only recently have researchers begun to address the response of channel-levee system evolution to deformation. Key factors which govern channel evolution and morphological development are relative rates of deformation and channel deposition and erosion, and also the number and scale of deformational structures, relative to the scale of the submarine channel. Submarine channel-structure interactions can be split into four end-members: deflection, blocking, diversion and confinement. Where deformation is coeval with channel development, an increase in the relative rate of uplift versus deposition and erosion causes a transition from channel deflection to blocking. Diversion and confinement are linked by the number, scale and orientation of structures relative to the channel flow path. Increasing the number of structures and their scale typically results in channel confinement. Underlying all of these individual controls is the distribution of local accommodation, which is determined by specific structural style. This distribution of accommodation over relatively small (<10 km) length scales strongly affects local channel development in order to attain the equilibrium profile. Knowledge of these controls on submarine channel development can increase our understanding of how these deepwater sedimentary systems evolve and distribute sediment across deforming submarine slopes. Understanding the factors governing spatial variations in channel morphology may also be applied when exploring for hydrocarbon reservoirs in structurally active deepwater settings.     

Shallow-water longshore drift-fed submarine fan deposition (Moisie River Delta, Eastern Canada)

Submarine canyons and associated submarine fans are in some cases located at the end of a littoral cell where they act as conduits for the transfer of eroded terrigenous sediments to the marine environment. Such fans are generally found in deep-water settings at >500 m water depth. Offshore the Moisie River Delta (NW Gulf of St. Lawrence, Eastern Canada), high-resolution multibeam bathymetry and seismic data led to the discovery of an unusually shallow submarine fan (≤60 m) located at the end of a littoral cell. Sediment is transported westward on the shallow coastal shelf, as demonstrated by the downcurrent displacement of oblique nearshore sandbars where the shelf narrows to less than 1 km. The steep slope near the end of the littoral cell is incised by a channel that feeds a submarine fan composed of smaller channels and depositional lobes. According to existing Holocene evolution models for the region, the fan formed within the last 5,000 years. Its evolution is largely due to the transport of sediment by longshore drift. Multibeam echosounder and seismic data also reveal that the gravity-driven accretion of the submarine fan is characterized mainly by two processes, i.e., frequent small-scale, downslope migration of sandwaves on the slope, and more episodic slumping/turbidity-current activity in the deeper part of the fan. This study documents that, besides their common deep-water location, smaller-scale submarine fans can occur also in very shallow water, implying that they could be more frequent than previously thought both in modern environments and in the rock record.     

Recent transfer of coastal sediments to the Laurentian Channel,Lower St. Lawrence Estuary (Eastern Canada), through submarine canyon and fan systems

Multibeam sonar data, acoustic sub-bottom profiles and box cores were used to study the activity of submarine canyons and fans near the city of Les Escoumins, on the North Shore of the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary (Eastern Canada). The multibeam data were used to generate a high-resolution digital terrain model that reveals the presence of a large number of canyons and fans along the northern slopes of the Laurentian Channel. This paper focuses on two of the larger canyons, and their associated submarine fans. The sub-bottom profiles on the fans reveal high-amplitude reflections at the sediment/water interface and near the seafloor surface, indicating the occurrence of layers of coarse material. A turbidite was observed in a box core sampled in one of the fans, confirming the nature of the coarse layer. Geophysical and sedimentological data indicate that the canyons and fans play an important role in transferring coastal sandy sediments to the deeper marine environments by longshore drift-initiated turbidity flows, and thereby contribute to the negative sediment budget along the coast. The morphology of the canyons indicates that they were produced by a combination of erosive turbidity flows and retrogressive failures. The two box cores sampled on the fans reveal a recent (~last 60 years) quasi-exponential increase in sand content near the surface of the cores, possibly reflecting recent deforestation and/or increased coastal erosion.     

Architecture of turbidite channel systems on the continental slope: Patterns and predictions

The study of many slope channel systems has led to the development of rules in the form of observations, measurements, and hypotheses. For example, we hypothesize that high abandonment relief can strongly influence the location of the subsequent channel element and will result in an organized channel stacking pattern in which the path of the younger channel element approximates the path of the former element. The rules were developed with the objective of constructing forward models of petroleum reservoirs that are internally consistent, reproducible, and quantifiable. Channelized turbidite deposits can be interpreted to be the product of multiple cycles of waxing-waning flow energy at multiple scales. Systematic changes in the volume and caliber of turbidity flows through time trigger a fall of the equilibrium profile, which drives erosion and sediment bypass across the slope, followed by a rise of the equilibrium profile, which allows deposition on the slope of increasingly mud-rich sediments through time. In most turbidite successions, at least three scales of waxing-waning cyclicity can be interpreted: element, complex set, and sequence. The stacking pattern of channel elements within a complex set-scale cycle tends to be sequential: (1) erosion and sediment bypass; (2) amalgamation of channel elements associated with a low rate of aggradation; (3) a disorganized stacking pattern of channel elements associated with a moderate rate of aggradation; and (4) an organized stacking pattern of channel elements associated with a high rate of aggradation. Stages 1 and 2 may be absent or minor in mud-rich systems but prominent in sand-rich systems. Conversely, stage 4 may be prominent in mud-rich systems but absent in sand-rich systems. Event-based forward modeling, utilizing rules, can produce realistic architectures, such as the four stages described above. Multiple realizations and multiple alternative models can be constructed to quantitatively examine the probability of specific parameters of interest such as pore volume and connectivity.     

Palynofacies classification of submarine fan depositional environments: Outcrop examples from the Marnoso-Arenacea Formation,Italy

Basin floor fans contain some of the largest deep-water hydrocarbon accumulations discovered, however they also demonstrate extremely complex stratigraphic architecture, understanding of which is crucial for maximum recovery. Here we develop a new method, based upon palynofacies analysis, for the distinction of the different depositional environments that are commonly associated with basin floor fans. Previous studies and our sedimentological analysis allow good confidence in the discrimination of the different depositional environments of the outcropping Marnoso-Arenacea Formation fan system. One hundred and thirty-five samples were collected from mudstones in conjunction with sedimentary logging of 871 m of outcrops. Six lithofacies associations are described and interpreted to represent lobe axis, lobe fringe, fan fringe, contained interlobe, basin plain, and starved high depositional sub-environments. Palynofacies of these elements demonstrate turbidites to be rich in terrestrial organic matter, with sixteen categories of matter recognised. The abundances and proportions of particles varies between sub-environments, with lobe axis deposits containing the largest, densest particles, with a transition to ever smaller and lighter particles moving toward the basin plain. Fuzzy C-means statistical analysis was used to explore this trend. Distribution of organic matter is not random, but is dominated by hydrodynamic sorting and sequential fall-out of particles as turbidity currents passed across the basin. This allows a palynofacies classification scheme to be constructed to assist the identification of depositional environments of submarine fans, which may be combined with subsurface data to assist reservoir characterisation.