Variability of Structural Style, Stratigraphic and Geomorphic Evolution of Rift Basins
PhD Oliver Duffy (UoM)
Hovedinnhold
Supervisors: Rob Gawthorpe (UiB), Simon Brocklehurst & Emma Finch (UoM), Mike Leeder (UEA), Matt Docherty (Maersk)
This project will utilise digital terrain analysis, structural and geomorphic field work, together with interpretation of 3D seismic data to investigate the structural style and evolution of faulted terrace domains and their control on fluvial and marine depositional systems. The study initially focuses on understanding the structural style of faulted terrace domains in regions of active extensional tectonics, specifically the Perachora Peninsula, Greece using digital terrain analysis. Our previous studies have recognised complex fault perpendicular and fault parallel stream networks and internal sediment 'sinks' within regions of faulted terraces, however, the detailed tectono-sedimentary evolution of the terraces and fluvial systems is largely unknown.
Studies of marine fault terraces focus on the salt-influenced Triassic-Jurassic of the Danish Sector of the North Sea rift, utilising 3D seismic data. In this phase of the project, fault geometries based on mapping key horizons and fault surfaces will provide a 3D structural framework and the structural evolution will be reconstructed using thickness data from syn-rift sequences. The marine depositional systems will be imaged using seismic attribute analysis tied to well data. The backstripped fault geometry will provide a template for establishing the control that terrace evolution and salt tectonics had on sediment dispersal and deposition. This project is sponsored by Maersk.