Journal Article•
Arabian Plate Sequence Stratigraphy
TL;DR: Arabian Plate Sequence Stratigraphy as discussed by the authors is the first publication to present a modern sequence stratigraphic review of the entire Arabian Plate stratigraphraphic succession, extending from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Aden, and from the Red Sea to the Zagros suture.
Abstract: Arabian Plate Sequence Stratigraphy is the first publication to present a modern sequence stratigraphic review of the entire Arabian Plate stratigraphic succession, extending from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Aden, and from the Red Sea to the Zagros suture. Biostratigraphic, lithostratigraphic, sedimentological, geochemical, oil industry and other data have been reviewed from the literature and re-presented to illustrate the tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of the plate. Key well logs, cross-sections, outcrop photos and other data are presented in full colour to illustrate the location and correlation of maximum flooding surfaces and unconformities. These key stratal surfaces allow an assessment of the geometric relationship between source rocks, reservoirs and seals. The Arabian Plate contains two-thirds of the worlds oil reserves, and produces about one-third of daily world oil production. These figures are likely to rise in the future such that the Arabian Plate approaches 50% of daily world oil production. A modern interpretation of the stratigraphy producing this oil is thus of interest to global geoscience.
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TL;DR: In this article, a standard but flexible methodology is proposed to analyze stratal stacking patterns in a sequence stratigraphic unit, from sequence to systems tract and parasequence.
Abstract: The recurrence of the same types of sequence stratigraphic surface through geologic time defines cycles of change in accommodation or sediment supply, which correspond to sequences in the rock record. These cycles may be symmetrical or asymmetrical, and may or may not include all types of systems tracts that may be expected within a fully developed sequence. Depending on the scale of observation, sequences and their bounding surfaces may be ascribed to different hierarchical orders. Stratal stacking patterns combine to define trends in geometric character that include upstepping, forestepping, backstepping and downstepping, expressing three types of shoreline shift: forced regression (forestepping and downstepping at the shoreline), normal regression (forestepping and upstepping at the shoreline) and transgression (backstepping at the shoreline). Stacking patterns that are independent of shoreline trajectories may also be defined on the basis of changes in depositional style that can be correlated regionally. All stratal stacking patterns reflect the interplay of the same two fundamental variables, namely accommodation (the space available for potential sediment accumulation) and sediment supply. Deposits defined by specific stratal stacking patterns form the basic constituents of any sequence stratigraphic unit, from sequence to systems tract and parasequence. Changes in stratal stacking patterns define the position and timing of key sequence stratigraphic surfaces. Precisely which surfaces are selected as sequence boundaries varies as a function of which surfaces are best expressed within the context of the depositional setting and the preservation of facies relationships and stratal stacking patterns in that succession. The high degree of variability in the expression of sequence stratigraphic units and bounding surfaces in the rock record means ideally that the methodology used to analyze their depositional setting should be flexible from one sequence stratigraphic approach to another. Construction of this framework ensures the success of the method in terms of its objectives to provide a process-based understanding of the stratigraphic architecture. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize a standard but flexible methodology that remains objective.
704 citations
01 Mar 2005
TL;DR: The breakup of the former Pangea supercontinent culminated in the modern drifting continents and increased rifting caused the establishment of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle Jurassic and significant widening in Cretaceous as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The breakup of the former Pangea supercontinent culminated in the modern drifting continents. Increased rifting caused the establishment of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle Jurassic and significant widening in Cretaceous. An explosion of calcareous nannoplankton and foraminifers in the warm seas created massive chalk deposits. A surge in submarine volcanic activity enhanced supergreenhouse conditions in the middle Cretaceous with high CO2 concentrations. Angiosperm plants bloomed on the dinosaur-dominated land during late Cretaceous. The Cretaceous dramatically ended with an asteroid impact, which resulted in a mass extinction.
280 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a sequence stratigraphic and lithofacies scheme that can be correlated with the evolution sedimentation on the Arabian and Levant plates, in which three major sequence boundaries are described (Kurnub, Ajlun and Belqa).
Abstract: The Cretaceous to Eocene succession in central and south Jordan is characterised by passive
continental margin depositional sequences, which pass upward from alluvial/paralic to
carbonate shelf and pelagic ramp settings. Detailed section logging and outcrop mapping have
produced robust lithostratigraphic and lithofacies schemes that can be correlated throughout
the region and in the subsurface. These schemes are set in a sequence stratigraphic context
in relation to the evolution sedimentation on the Arabian and Levant plates. Three major
megasequences are described (Kurnub, Ajlun and Belqa), and these are further subdivided
into large-scale depositional sequences separated by regional sequence boundaries that
represent maximum flooding surfaces. There is close correspondence between maximum
flooding surfaces recording major sea-level rise with those derived for the Arabian and
Levant plates, although there are some discrepancies with the precise timing of global sealevel
fluctuations.
An upward change from braided to meandering stream fluvial environments in central
and south Jordan during the Early Cretaceous, reflects a decreasing geomorphological
gradient of the alluvial plain, declining siliciclastic sediment flux, and increased floodplain
accommodation, associated with a regional Late Albian (second-order) rise in relative sealevel.
The Late Albian to Early Cenomanian marine transgression across the coastal alluvial
plain marks a major sequence boundary. During Cenomanian to Turonian times a rimmed
carbonate-shelf was established, characterised by skeletal carbonates showing small-scale,
upward-shallowing cycles (fourth- to fifth-order parasequences) ranging from subtidal to
intertidal facies, arranged into parasequence sets. Rimmed carbonate shelf sequences pass
laterally to coeval coastal/alluvial plain facies to the south and east. Eustatic (third-order)
fluctuations in relative sea level during the Cenomanian and Early Turonian resulted in
deposition of ammonite-rich wackestones and organic-rich marls, during high sea-level
stands (maximum flooding surfaces). Progradational sabkha/salina facies passing landwards
to fluvial siliciclastics were deposited during an Early Turonian sea-level low stand, marks a
regional sequence boundary, above which a highstand carbonate platform was established.
A second-order, regional rise in sea level and marine transgression during the Early Coniacian
marks a Type 2 sequence boundary, and subsequent drowning of the rimmed carbonate
shelf by Late Coniacian times. Sedimentation during the Santonian to Maastrichtian was
characterised by a hemi-pelagic chalk-chert-phosphorite lithofacies association, deposited in
shallow to moderate water depths on a homoclinal ramp setting, although thicker coeval
sequences were deposited in extensional rifts. The marked change in sedimentation from
rimmed carbonate shelf to pelagic ramp is attributed to Neo-Tethyan mid-oceanic rifting,
tilting, intracratonic deformation and subsidence of the platform; this is reflected in changes in
biogenic productivity and ocean currents. Oceanic upwelling and high organic productivity
resulted in the deposition of phosphorite together with giant oyster banks, the latter developing
within oxygenated wave-base on the inner ramp. Chalk hardgrounds, sub-marine erosion
surfaces, and gravitational slump folds indicate depositional hiatus and tectonic instability
on the ramp. In the Early Maastrichtian, deeper-water chalk-marl, locally organic-rich, was
deposited in density-stratified, anoxic basins, that were partly fault controlled.
Pulsatory marine onlap (highstand sequences) during the Eocene is manifested in pelagic
chalk and chert with a paucity of benthic macro-fauna, indicating a highly stressed, possibly
hypersaline, and density-stratified water column. Comparison with global and regional
relative sea-level curves enable regionally induced tectonic factors (hinterland uplift and
ocean spreading) to be deduced, against a background of global sea-level rise, changing
oceanic chemistry/productivity and climatic change.
131 citations
Cites background from "Arabian Plate Sequence Stratigraphy..."
...Despite the overall trend of thinning south-eastward, towards the Arabian Craton, local rift-related subsidence during Cenomanian – Turonian times resulted in deposition of a thick succession (ca. 600 m thick) in the Azraq-Hamza Basin (Andrews, 1992)....
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...The presentday Mediterranean coastline corresponds approximately to the Cretaceous (Aptian to Late Turonian) palaeohingeline, which separated the deep-water Tethyan basin from the shallow carbonate shelf/ ramp; the ocean-spreading centre was located close to Cyprus (Flexer et al., 1986; Scotese, 1991; Sharland et al., 2001; Stampfli and Borel, 2002)....
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...Sedimentation and sequence architecture on the southern passive continental margin of Tethys (present-day North Africa and Arabia) was largely controlled by three extrinsic factors....
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...…to the Cretaceous (Aptian to Late Turonian) palaeohingeline, which separated the deep-water Tethyan basin from the shallow carbonate shelf/ ramp; the ocean-spreading centre was located close to Cyprus (Flexer et al., 1986; Scotese, 1991; Sharland et al., 2001; Stampfli and Borel, 2002)....
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...…and one of the aims of this paper is to unravel the significance of these variables during evolution of the Cretaceous to Eocene sequences in the region, against a back-drop of global sea-level fluctuations (Haq et al., 1988; Miall, 1991; Sharland et al., 2001; Haq and Al-Qahtani, 2005)....
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TL;DR: In this article, a review of published data for the region and attempts to unravel the key diagenetic controls on the porosity and permeability of the reservoirs in the carbonate-dominated Albian-to-Turonian succession is presented.
Abstract: The carbonate-dominated Albian to Turonian succession is one of the key petroleum systems of the Arabian Plate. It is dominated by shallow water platform carbonates that were deposited in a shallow epeiric sea on the margins of Neotethys. In general, the reservoirs in this succession have high porosities but exhibit heterogeneous permeabilities. This study reviews published data for the region and attempts to unravel the key diagenetic controls on the porosity and permeability of the reservoirs. The results demonstrate that a spectrum of diagenetic processes created highly heterogeneous multimodal pore networks. Intense boring and micritization of skeletal allochems, differential cementation of a pervasive burrow network and preferential dissolution of aragonitic skeletal allochems are ubiquitous. Locally, particularly on the northern and eastern Arabian Plate, deep-penetrating epikarst can be tied to a differential response to global sea level fluctuation and local tectonism. The development of a peripheral bulge in late Cenomanian–Turonian times, halokinesis, localized influx of channelized clastic material and sub-regional climatic variability contributed to a heterogeneous pattern of meteoric diagenesis across the Arabian Plate. The succession was then buried to up to 10 km during the Late Cretaceous–Tertiary. Where deep-penetrating fault systems were reactivated by Alpine tectonism, flushing by hydrothermal brines resulted in highly localized patterns of hydrothermal dolomitization and leaching, associated with hydrocarbon emplacement.
110 citations
Cites background from "Arabian Plate Sequence Stratigraphy..."
...The entire sequence represents the upper part of the AP8 megasequence, bounded by the maximum flooding surfaces K90 to K140 of Sharland et al. (2001) and Petroleum Geoscience, Vol. 17 2011, pp. 223–241 1354-0793/11/$15.00 2011 EAGE/Geological Society of London DOI 10.1144/1354-079310-032 Davies et…...
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