Architecture and evolution of upper fan channel-belts on the Niger Delta slope and in the Arabian Sea

High-resolution multichannel 2-D and 3-D seismic data, primarily from upper fan reaches of near-seafloor channel-levee systems on the Niger Delta slope and in the Arabian Sea, reveal a high level of detail and architectural complexity. Several architectural elements are common to each system examined in this study. They include inner levees, outer levees, erosional fairways, channel-axis deposits, rotational slumps blocks, and mass transport deposits. Although the scale of individual systems varies significantly, similarities in first-order architectural elements and their configurations suggest that common depositional processes are involved regardless of scale differences.Most of the channel-levee systems examined in this study are characterized by a basal erosional fairway that is bordered by outer levees of varying thickness. Together these elements define the base and margins of the channel-belt, where channel-axis deposits and inner levees are the dominant architectural elements. Vertical, sub-vertical, and lateral stacking patterns of sinuous and/or meandering channels create seismic facies that range from narrow to wide zones of high amplitude reflections (HARs) with chaotic to continuous and shingled to horizontal reflections. Some HARs appear as isolated or stacked asymmetric to symmetric u- and v-shaped reflections, referred to here as channel-forms. Channel-belts evolve within the confines of the scalloped erosional fairway walls (flanked by outer levee), and are similar in morphology to meander-belts in fluvial systems, but commonly have a greater component of vertical aggradation. Detailed study of one particular channel-levee system on the Niger Delta slope shows a period of incision followed by three distinct phases of channel development during its aggradational history. Each fill phase corresponds to a different channel stacking architecture, planform geometry, and nature of terrace development, with important implications for reservoir architecture. In some cases, multiple phases of inner levee growth are observed, each intimately linked to the channel migration and aggradation history. Channel sinuosity evolves dynamically, with some meander loops undergoing periods of accelerated meander growth at the same time that others show little lateral migration.