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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 55 (1971)

Issue: 8. (August)

First Page: 1137

Last Page: 1154

Title: Genetic Units in Delta Prospecting

Author(s): Daniel A. Busch (2)

Abstract:

Deltas generally are formed at river mouths during stillstands of sea level under conditions of cyclic transgression or regression. Consequently, they are rarely isolated phenomena, but form in multiples in a predictable fashion. Reservoir facies consist of continuous and discontinuous, bifurcating channel sandstones and delta-front sheet sandstones. The channel sandstones generally thicken downward at the expense of the underlying prodelta clays and may replace selected parts of the delta-front sheet sandstones.

The lithologic components of a deltaic complex are interrelated and are referred to collectively as one type of Genetic Increment of Strata (GIS). The GIS is a vertical sequence of strata in which each lithologic component is related genetically to all the others. It is defined at the top by a time-lithologic marker bed (such as a thin limestone or bentonite) and at the base by either a time-lithologic marker bed, an unconformity, or a facies change from marine to nonmarine beds. It generally consists of the total of all marginal marine sediments deposited during one stillstand stage of a shoreline, or it may be a wedge of sediments deposited during a series of cyclic subsidences or emergences. An isopach map of a GIS clearly shows the bifurcating trends of the individual distributari s and the shape of the delta, regardless of the variable lithology of the channel fills.

A Genetic Sequence of Strata (GSS) consists of two or more contiguous GIS's and, when isopached, clearly defines the shelf, hinge line, and less stable part of a depositional basin. An isopach map of the McAlester Formation of the Arkoma basin is a good example of a GSS. The oil-productive Booch sandstone is a good example of a deltaic complex occurring within a GIS of this GSS. The upper Tonkawa, Endicott, and Red Fork sandstones of the Anadarko basin are identified as deltaic accumulations within different GIS's.

A hypothetical model serves as a basis for establishing the criteria for (1) recognizing successive stillstand positions of a shoreline, (2) predicting paleodrainage courses, (3) predicting positions of a series of deltaic reservoirs, (4) locating isolated channel sandstone reservoirs, and (5) tracing related beach sandstone reservoirs.

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