About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 65 (1981)

Issue: 5. (May)

First Page: 958

Last Page: 959

Title: Depositional Model for Submarine Fans

Author(s): Marcus E. Milling, Sr., John R. Duncan

Abstract:

End_Page 958------------------------------

Sand deposition on the Dume submarine fan off southern California is localized in the prominent leveed channels on the upper fan and on suprafans. The sand-laden turbidity currents, confined to channels by high levees in the upper reaches of the fan, overtop the low levees in the suprafan area and deposit their loads in fan-shaped sheets across the middle and lower fan segments. Thus suprafans normally are formed on middle to lower fan areas and are characterized by sand sheets and numerous small distributary channels with no levees, or very low-relief levees. These channel-suprafan units form the basic building blocks of submarine fans and are the key to understanding their sedimentary facies distributions.

On high resolution sparker sections, the fan is internally characterized by discontinuous reflections and abundant diffractions resulting from the depositional relief produced by buried leveed channels. In detailed interpretations of the sparker sections, the fan complex can be divided into lobes and stratigraphic intervals related to different depositional processes. A three-dimensional fan model has been developed and applied in the interpretation of ancient fans recognized in outcrops and the subsurface.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 959------------

Pay-Per-View Purchase Options

The article is available through a document delivery service. Explain these Purchase Options.

Watermarked PDF Document: $14
Open PDF Document: $24

AAPG Member?

Please login with your Member username and password.

Members of AAPG receive access to the full AAPG Bulletin Archives as part of their membership. For more information, contact the AAPG Membership Department at [email protected].