Publication Date:
2006-12-01
Description:
Sequence-stratigraphic conceptual models typically focus on accommodation as a dominant control. Although useful in many ways, this approach may not address the full range of possible controls on stratal patterns, nor is it likely to fully address uncertainty in the identification and quantification of controlling processes. Consequently, predictions from sequence-stratigraphic conceptual models may be more limited than generally stated. Progress in addressing this problem can be achieved by applying the latest generation three-dimensional stratigraphic forward modeling to (1) investigate and include more of the parameters that may control stratal architectures and (2) consider multiple scenarios to help determine the impact of uncertainty in operating processes and their parameter values. Results from a three-dimensional diffusional stratigraphic forward model illustrate this approach, suggesting that relative sea level change, shelf width, and sediment-transport efficiency are important large-scale controls on the spatial and temporal distribution of deep-marine stratal volumes. If this result is sufficiently independent of model assumptions and can be replicated in other models, it suggests that all three controlling factors should be included in interpretations and predictions of outcrop and subsurface deep-marine strata. Modeling results also suggest that combining multiple forward-model scenarios to form conditional frequency maps may be a useful, practical method to present and analyze multiple scenarios. The use of multiple forward-modeling scenarios to consider multiple controls on stratal architecture could begin to account more fully for uncertainty in controlling processes and parameter values, in sequence stratigraphy generally, and evaluation of subsurface uncertainty specifically. Peter Burgess is a senior regional geologist in Shell working on the Global Frontiers exploration research team. He completed his Ph.D. in stratigraphic forward modeling at Oxford in 1994, followed by postdoctoral projects on cratonic stratigraphy and Jurassic rift-basin stratigraphy. He spent 4 years lecturing on sedimentology and stratigraphy at Cardiff University and then joined Shell International Exploration & Production in Rijswijk in 2002. Henne Lammers is a software engineer for Shell International Exploration & Production. He joined Shell in 1978 and has been involved in stratigraphic forward modeling since 1994. He is the codeveloper of STRATAGEM (Shell's two-dimensional stratigraphic forward-modeling package) and is now responsible for the in-house deployment of Dionisos, a three-dimensional stratigraphic forward-modeling software produced via a joint industry project with Institut Français du Pétrole in Paris. Cees van Oosterhout is a consultant from Argo Geological Consultants working for Shell. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in stratigraphy from Utrecht University in 1987 and worked mainly as a seismic interpreter in Kazakhstan and Gabon exploration ventures before join ing the Dionisos research team. Now part of the Global Frontiers exploration research team, his main focus is plate tectonics and paleogeography. Didier Granjeon joined the Sedimentology Group at the Institut Français du Pétrole in 1992. He received his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Rennes in 1996. He has been involved in reservoir and basin studies, from seismic and outcrop interpretation to numerical modeling. His work has been focused on the research and development of a three-dimensional stratigraphic forward model.
Print ISSN:
0149-1423
Electronic ISSN:
1943-2674
Topics:
Geosciences
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