ABSTRACT Integration of satellite data, high-altitude photos, well log correlation and field obse... more ABSTRACT Integration of satellite data, high-altitude photos, well log correlation and field observations has been used to develop a sequence stratigraphic framework for Tertiary strata in the Transverse Ranges. The framework is based on tracing sequence boundaries or unconformities in the field, and on the ability to recognize these surfaces on well log data. Identification of parasequence stacking patterns that are typical of transgressive, highstand, and lowstand systems tracts was significant in building this framework. Systematic development of these stacking patterns was considered unlikely where local random events alone influenced deposition. Biostratigraphic data was tied to eustatic cycle charts to relate these sequences to global events. Key boundaries that were identified include the 49.5-, 48.5-, 44-, 39.5-, 36-, and 30-m.y. sequence boundaries. For example, the 49.5- and 48.5-m.y. sequence boundaries are located within the Matilija Formation. These sequences locally exhibit truncation and development of highstand, lowstand, and transgressive system tracts; lowstand and transgressive system tracts are best developed. The 39.5-m.y. sequence boundary is located between the Sacate and Gaviota formations in the western Transverse Ranges. This boundary exhibits tectonic enhancement on satellite photos with truncation of middle Eocene folds below the unconformity. Previously, abrupt lithologic changes across this unconformity were regarded as facies changes. Sequences within the Transverse Ranges exhibit variability in terms of systems tract preservation degree of truncation, and depositional setting. Identification of stratigraphic surfaces, unconformities and flooding surfaces, and repetitive stacking arrangement of strata is essential to development of a sequence framework. The ability to put a framework together in the Transverse Ranges indicates that both tectonic and eustatic events can be recognized.
ABSTRACT Integration of satellite imagery and high-altitude photography with ground observations ... more ABSTRACT Integration of satellite imagery and high-altitude photography with ground observations has helped document the existence of an unconformity in uppermost Eocene rocks in the Transverse Ranges of California. The surface is expressed locally as an angular unconformity that can be mapped from the western Transverse Ranges near Gaviota Gorge to Matilija Hot Springs north of Ojai, California. This unconformity separates the Gaviota Formation from the Sacate Formation in the western Transverse Ranges and exists within the Coldwater Formation from San Marcos Pass to Matilija Hot Springs. Rocks below the unconformity are variable in age, but are generally older near Matilija Hot Springs than on the west near Gaviota Gorge. This indicates greater truncation below the unconformity to the east, in a direction up the paleoslope. This unconformity formed about 39.5 Ma and coincides with a sequence boundary and lowstand of sea level interpreted from middle Eocene sections elsewhere.
A system of large to small northwesterly flowing braided streams, fed from the quartz-rich southe... more A system of large to small northwesterly flowing braided streams, fed from the quartz-rich southern source, deposited clean, laterally persistent, reservoir sands (braided fluvial and deha front facies) and impervious sealing shales (prodelta slope and prodelta shelf facies) across the slowly subsiding Saharan Platform. These deposits can be traced northward in the subsurface, across the entirety of western Libya, into the outcrop in the Jebel Nefusa, the northern limit of onshore control. Deposition ultimately extended northward into the more rapidly subsiding, organic rich, Gabes-Sabratha basin.
Oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale (Cenomanian-Turonian) exceeded 300,000 barrels per day i... more Oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale (Cenomanian-Turonian) exceeded 300,000 barrels per day in July 2012 and helped push oil production in Texas to its highest levels in more than twenty years. The Eagle Ford consists of cyclic interbeds of organic-rich marls and limestones containing abundant coccoliths and planktic foraminifera. Some suggested drivers for the cyclicity include complex interactions of eustacy, plankton productivity, clastic input, volcanic activity and bottom currents. These explanations overlook the substantial amounts of diagenetic calcite in the limestones. Diagenesis has been suggested as the primary source of rhythmic limestone-marl successions in other stratigraphic successions. Analysis of Eagle Ford Shale intervals from multiple wells focusing on representative one-meter cycles sampled at decimeter intervals reveals the importance of bottom currents and diagenesis in forming the limestone-marl interbeds. Ripple and scour lamina sets dominate the Eagle F...
Submarine fans of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence exhibit a distinctive vertical an... more Submarine fans of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence exhibit a distinctive vertical and lateral association of lithofacies that serves as a general model of deep-marine strata. Other turbidite-bearing deposits of the California coast include the Wheeler Gorge turbidites, the Matilija and Sacate formations of the Transverse Ranges, and the Point Loma Formation of the San Diego basin. These formations have all been identified as submarine fans because they are dominated by turbidite lithofacies, despite substantial differences in vertical succession and lateral continuity of facies and lithologies. Basinal-turbidites of the Great Valley Sequence, Sacramento basin, consist of interstratified sandstone- and shale-prone units that represent alternating coarse-grained lowstand, submarine-fan and fine-grained lowstand wedge and highstand deposits. Typically, fans exhibit a sharp base, thin- and fine-upsection, and stack retrogradationally. Cretaceous turbidites at Wheeler Gorge ...
International Petroleum Technology Conference, 2008
Copyright 2008, International Petroleum Technology Conference This paper was prepared for present... more Copyright 2008, International Petroleum Technology Conference This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 35 December 2008. This paper was selected for presentation by an IPTC ...
ABSTRACT no. 7. v + 55 pp.+ 14 fold-out plates. Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologis... more ABSTRACT no. 7. v + 55 pp.+ 14 fold-out plates. Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists. ISBN 0 89181 657 7.
The Ardath Shale and Scripps Formation exposed along Black's Beach north of La Jolla, California,... more The Ardath Shale and Scripps Formation exposed along Black's Beach north of La Jolla, California, record a deep-water channelized slope system of an Eocene forearc basin. The outcrop exposure, which is approximately 100 m (330 ft) high by 1.7 km (~1 mi) long, offers insight into reservoir distribution and connectivity within coarse-grained, confined, deep-water channel systems. To use this outcrop as a quantitative subsurface analog, a detailed two-dimensional lithologic model was constructed from measured sections and interpreted photopanels. Elastic rock properties, including compressional-wave velocity, shear-wave velocity, and density typical of shallow offshore west African reservoirs were used to construct an impedance model. This model was convolved with 15-, 25-, and 50-Hz quadrature-phase Ricker wavelets to generate near-and far-angle stack one-dimensional and two-dimensional synthetic seismic reflection models. Because deep-water lithofacies have distinct amplitude-variation-withoffset behaviors and the interpretation of surfaces is intimately coupled with predicting lithofacies, simple bed interface models of conglomerate, sandstone, interbedded sandstone and mudstone, and muddy sandy debrite were used to build a template for successful interpretation.
ABSTRACT The Great Valley sequence consists of submarine fan deposits that are divided into later... more ABSTRACT The Great Valley sequence consists of submarine fan deposits that are divided into laterally persistent sandstones and conglomerates separated by thick shaly intervals. The frequency of sandstone-shale successions in the Great Valley closely corresponds to the occurrence of major eustatic falls observed elsewhere in the world during the Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous. This close correspondence between the number of observed fans and sea level cycles has implications for the timing of fan development and facies models of deep-water deposits. On the basis of seismic expression, deep-water deposits from various basins have been divided by Mitchum into a sand-prone lower fan, which has a sharp basal contact, and a younger upper fan, which exhibits downlap onto and over the lower fan. Sand-prone members of the Great Valley (e.g., Venado and Forbes) are sharp-based, fining-upward units that have an aggradational or retrogradational stacking pattern of fan lobes. Massive sandstone, pebbly sandstone, conglomerate, pebbly mudstone, turbidites, and lenticular turbidites compose the fan lithologies. These rocks are typically referred to as inner fan channel or midfan lobes. In contrast, shale-dominated sections with thin-bedded turbidites (e.g., Boxer and Yolo) that have been variously described as basin plain, outer fan, inner fan levee, and slope correspond to the upper fan. Sharp basal fan contacts, textural contrasts between the lower and upper fans, and encasement of sand-prone fans in thick shaly sections indicate that fan development is an episodic rather than a continuous process. Rapid eustatic fall causing stream incision and shelf bypass is a likely mechanism for basin-wide and interbasinal fan development. Lithofacies encountered in fan deposits are related to grain size in the source area; specific lithologies in Great Valley fans (e.g., conglomerate) may be absent in other basins.
The Cerro Toro Formation contains a variety of lithofacies including pebble and cobble conglomera... more The Cerro Toro Formation contains a variety of lithofacies including pebble and cobble conglomerate, coarse-grained sandstone, thin-bedded mudstone and sandstone, and slumped to chaotic mudstone. Coarse-grained rocks in the Cerro Toro have been described and well documented, whereas characterization and description of mudstone-prone lithofacies are not well documented. These mudstoneprone rocks exhibit two architectural patterns: 1) broad (>200 m) undulating or wavy-bedded elements that laterally terminate by onlap, truncation (toplap) and downlap patterns, and 2) laterally persistent (>400 m), horizontal, thin-bedded mudstone and sandstone. Adjacent to Channel Complex 3 (Paine C Member), these facies exhibit a stratigraphic transition from horizontal to wavy and curved beds concurrent with pronounced aggradation of laterally equivalent, and possibly coeval, channel facies. Sandstone and mudstone beds within the wavy-bedded facies exhibit turbidite lithofacies that include current-ripple lamination (Tc), planar lamination (Tb) massive, graded intervals (Ta), and laminated to structureless silt-and clay-rich beds (Tde). Typically, these beds are a few centimeters thick, but locally, sandstone beds form bedsets over 1 m thick. These thick sandstone bedsets display inclined bedding or lamination associated with mudstone rip-up clasts and are confined to troughs or swales within large-scale wavy-bedded units. Erosion surfaces within this thin-bedded fine-grained lithofacies are spaced vertically at 10e15 m, commonly associated with the crest of curved bedding and display at least 5 m of relief.
ABSTRACT Integration of satellite data, high-altitude photos, well log correlation and field obse... more ABSTRACT Integration of satellite data, high-altitude photos, well log correlation and field observations has been used to develop a sequence stratigraphic framework for Tertiary strata in the Transverse Ranges. The framework is based on tracing sequence boundaries or unconformities in the field, and on the ability to recognize these surfaces on well log data. Identification of parasequence stacking patterns that are typical of transgressive, highstand, and lowstand systems tracts was significant in building this framework. Systematic development of these stacking patterns was considered unlikely where local random events alone influenced deposition. Biostratigraphic data was tied to eustatic cycle charts to relate these sequences to global events. Key boundaries that were identified include the 49.5-, 48.5-, 44-, 39.5-, 36-, and 30-m.y. sequence boundaries. For example, the 49.5- and 48.5-m.y. sequence boundaries are located within the Matilija Formation. These sequences locally exhibit truncation and development of highstand, lowstand, and transgressive system tracts; lowstand and transgressive system tracts are best developed. The 39.5-m.y. sequence boundary is located between the Sacate and Gaviota formations in the western Transverse Ranges. This boundary exhibits tectonic enhancement on satellite photos with truncation of middle Eocene folds below the unconformity. Previously, abrupt lithologic changes across this unconformity were regarded as facies changes. Sequences within the Transverse Ranges exhibit variability in terms of systems tract preservation degree of truncation, and depositional setting. Identification of stratigraphic surfaces, unconformities and flooding surfaces, and repetitive stacking arrangement of strata is essential to development of a sequence framework. The ability to put a framework together in the Transverse Ranges indicates that both tectonic and eustatic events can be recognized.
ABSTRACT Integration of satellite imagery and high-altitude photography with ground observations ... more ABSTRACT Integration of satellite imagery and high-altitude photography with ground observations has helped document the existence of an unconformity in uppermost Eocene rocks in the Transverse Ranges of California. The surface is expressed locally as an angular unconformity that can be mapped from the western Transverse Ranges near Gaviota Gorge to Matilija Hot Springs north of Ojai, California. This unconformity separates the Gaviota Formation from the Sacate Formation in the western Transverse Ranges and exists within the Coldwater Formation from San Marcos Pass to Matilija Hot Springs. Rocks below the unconformity are variable in age, but are generally older near Matilija Hot Springs than on the west near Gaviota Gorge. This indicates greater truncation below the unconformity to the east, in a direction up the paleoslope. This unconformity formed about 39.5 Ma and coincides with a sequence boundary and lowstand of sea level interpreted from middle Eocene sections elsewhere.
A system of large to small northwesterly flowing braided streams, fed from the quartz-rich southe... more A system of large to small northwesterly flowing braided streams, fed from the quartz-rich southern source, deposited clean, laterally persistent, reservoir sands (braided fluvial and deha front facies) and impervious sealing shales (prodelta slope and prodelta shelf facies) across the slowly subsiding Saharan Platform. These deposits can be traced northward in the subsurface, across the entirety of western Libya, into the outcrop in the Jebel Nefusa, the northern limit of onshore control. Deposition ultimately extended northward into the more rapidly subsiding, organic rich, Gabes-Sabratha basin.
Oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale (Cenomanian-Turonian) exceeded 300,000 barrels per day i... more Oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale (Cenomanian-Turonian) exceeded 300,000 barrels per day in July 2012 and helped push oil production in Texas to its highest levels in more than twenty years. The Eagle Ford consists of cyclic interbeds of organic-rich marls and limestones containing abundant coccoliths and planktic foraminifera. Some suggested drivers for the cyclicity include complex interactions of eustacy, plankton productivity, clastic input, volcanic activity and bottom currents. These explanations overlook the substantial amounts of diagenetic calcite in the limestones. Diagenesis has been suggested as the primary source of rhythmic limestone-marl successions in other stratigraphic successions. Analysis of Eagle Ford Shale intervals from multiple wells focusing on representative one-meter cycles sampled at decimeter intervals reveals the importance of bottom currents and diagenesis in forming the limestone-marl interbeds. Ripple and scour lamina sets dominate the Eagle F...
Submarine fans of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence exhibit a distinctive vertical an... more Submarine fans of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence exhibit a distinctive vertical and lateral association of lithofacies that serves as a general model of deep-marine strata. Other turbidite-bearing deposits of the California coast include the Wheeler Gorge turbidites, the Matilija and Sacate formations of the Transverse Ranges, and the Point Loma Formation of the San Diego basin. These formations have all been identified as submarine fans because they are dominated by turbidite lithofacies, despite substantial differences in vertical succession and lateral continuity of facies and lithologies. Basinal-turbidites of the Great Valley Sequence, Sacramento basin, consist of interstratified sandstone- and shale-prone units that represent alternating coarse-grained lowstand, submarine-fan and fine-grained lowstand wedge and highstand deposits. Typically, fans exhibit a sharp base, thin- and fine-upsection, and stack retrogradationally. Cretaceous turbidites at Wheeler Gorge ...
International Petroleum Technology Conference, 2008
Copyright 2008, International Petroleum Technology Conference This paper was prepared for present... more Copyright 2008, International Petroleum Technology Conference This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 35 December 2008. This paper was selected for presentation by an IPTC ...
ABSTRACT no. 7. v + 55 pp.+ 14 fold-out plates. Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologis... more ABSTRACT no. 7. v + 55 pp.+ 14 fold-out plates. Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists. ISBN 0 89181 657 7.
The Ardath Shale and Scripps Formation exposed along Black's Beach north of La Jolla, California,... more The Ardath Shale and Scripps Formation exposed along Black's Beach north of La Jolla, California, record a deep-water channelized slope system of an Eocene forearc basin. The outcrop exposure, which is approximately 100 m (330 ft) high by 1.7 km (~1 mi) long, offers insight into reservoir distribution and connectivity within coarse-grained, confined, deep-water channel systems. To use this outcrop as a quantitative subsurface analog, a detailed two-dimensional lithologic model was constructed from measured sections and interpreted photopanels. Elastic rock properties, including compressional-wave velocity, shear-wave velocity, and density typical of shallow offshore west African reservoirs were used to construct an impedance model. This model was convolved with 15-, 25-, and 50-Hz quadrature-phase Ricker wavelets to generate near-and far-angle stack one-dimensional and two-dimensional synthetic seismic reflection models. Because deep-water lithofacies have distinct amplitude-variation-withoffset behaviors and the interpretation of surfaces is intimately coupled with predicting lithofacies, simple bed interface models of conglomerate, sandstone, interbedded sandstone and mudstone, and muddy sandy debrite were used to build a template for successful interpretation.
ABSTRACT The Great Valley sequence consists of submarine fan deposits that are divided into later... more ABSTRACT The Great Valley sequence consists of submarine fan deposits that are divided into laterally persistent sandstones and conglomerates separated by thick shaly intervals. The frequency of sandstone-shale successions in the Great Valley closely corresponds to the occurrence of major eustatic falls observed elsewhere in the world during the Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous. This close correspondence between the number of observed fans and sea level cycles has implications for the timing of fan development and facies models of deep-water deposits. On the basis of seismic expression, deep-water deposits from various basins have been divided by Mitchum into a sand-prone lower fan, which has a sharp basal contact, and a younger upper fan, which exhibits downlap onto and over the lower fan. Sand-prone members of the Great Valley (e.g., Venado and Forbes) are sharp-based, fining-upward units that have an aggradational or retrogradational stacking pattern of fan lobes. Massive sandstone, pebbly sandstone, conglomerate, pebbly mudstone, turbidites, and lenticular turbidites compose the fan lithologies. These rocks are typically referred to as inner fan channel or midfan lobes. In contrast, shale-dominated sections with thin-bedded turbidites (e.g., Boxer and Yolo) that have been variously described as basin plain, outer fan, inner fan levee, and slope correspond to the upper fan. Sharp basal fan contacts, textural contrasts between the lower and upper fans, and encasement of sand-prone fans in thick shaly sections indicate that fan development is an episodic rather than a continuous process. Rapid eustatic fall causing stream incision and shelf bypass is a likely mechanism for basin-wide and interbasinal fan development. Lithofacies encountered in fan deposits are related to grain size in the source area; specific lithologies in Great Valley fans (e.g., conglomerate) may be absent in other basins.
The Cerro Toro Formation contains a variety of lithofacies including pebble and cobble conglomera... more The Cerro Toro Formation contains a variety of lithofacies including pebble and cobble conglomerate, coarse-grained sandstone, thin-bedded mudstone and sandstone, and slumped to chaotic mudstone. Coarse-grained rocks in the Cerro Toro have been described and well documented, whereas characterization and description of mudstone-prone lithofacies are not well documented. These mudstoneprone rocks exhibit two architectural patterns: 1) broad (>200 m) undulating or wavy-bedded elements that laterally terminate by onlap, truncation (toplap) and downlap patterns, and 2) laterally persistent (>400 m), horizontal, thin-bedded mudstone and sandstone. Adjacent to Channel Complex 3 (Paine C Member), these facies exhibit a stratigraphic transition from horizontal to wavy and curved beds concurrent with pronounced aggradation of laterally equivalent, and possibly coeval, channel facies. Sandstone and mudstone beds within the wavy-bedded facies exhibit turbidite lithofacies that include current-ripple lamination (Tc), planar lamination (Tb) massive, graded intervals (Ta), and laminated to structureless silt-and clay-rich beds (Tde). Typically, these beds are a few centimeters thick, but locally, sandstone beds form bedsets over 1 m thick. These thick sandstone bedsets display inclined bedding or lamination associated with mudstone rip-up clasts and are confined to troughs or swales within large-scale wavy-bedded units. Erosion surfaces within this thin-bedded fine-grained lithofacies are spaced vertically at 10e15 m, commonly associated with the crest of curved bedding and display at least 5 m of relief.
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