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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 64 (1980)

Issue: 5. (May)

First Page: 803

Last Page: 803

Title: Potential Petroleum Reservoirs on Deep-Sea Fans Off Central California: ABSTRACT

Author(s): P. Wilde, William R. Normark, T. E. Chase

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

A variety of potential petroleum reservoirs are indicated in subbottom seismic profiles or implied by the depositional history of the deep-sea fans off central California. The size and extent of both the stratigraphic and tectonic traps off California are large compared to terrestrial analogs as seen only through the crude filter of acoustic profiling. Stratigraphic traps such as buried deep-sea channels, sand lobes, and updip pinch-out sands are produced as a normal consequence of the formation of deep-sea fans. Such stratigraphic traps can be expected on any submarine fan if the sand budget and porosity are sufficient. Slumps of sediment from the continental slope cover large areas of the deep-sea fans, and slumped sediment may isolate and bury channel segments and asso iated sand bodies. Tectonic traps resulting from folding or faulting are rare in deep-water fans. Faulting and folding are more commonly observed in fans from slope basins and from the California borderland and produce both tectonic traps and stratigraphic traps by altering configuration of the basin.

Large deep-sea fans are built over irregular oceanic crustal topography that has as much as 2 km of relief. As a result, many localized basins on the middle and outer fan are substantially thicker than much of the adjacent fan. On Monterey fan, for example, these local basins include valleys between abyssal hills and a large fracture-zone trough.

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