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Course Notes 40: Deep-Water Sandstones, Brushy Canyon Formation, West Texas Copyright 1999 AAPG. All rights reserved.
Course Notes 40: Deep-Water Sandstones, Brushy Canyon Formation, West Texas
R.T. Beaubouef, C. Rossen, F.B. Zelt, M.D. Sullivan, D.C. Mohrig, G D.C. Jennette
Introduction
Exceptional oblique-dip exposures of submarine fan complexes
of the Brushy Canyon Fm. allow reconstruction of channel geometries and reservoir
architecture from the slope to the basin floor. The Brushy Canyon consists of
1,500 ft. of basinally restricted sandstones and siltstones that onlap older carbonate
slope deposits at the NW margin of the Delaware Basin. This succession represents
a lowstand sequence set comprised of higher frequency sequences that were deposited
in the basin during subaerial exposure and bypass of the adjacent carbonate shelf.
Progradational sequence stacking patterns reflect changing position and character
of the slope as it evolved from a relict, carbonate margin, to a constructional,
siltstone-dominated slope. Lowstand fan systems tracts consist of sharp-based,
laterally extensive, sand-prone basin floor deposits and large, sand-filled channels
encased in siltstones on the slope. The abandonment phase of each sequence (lowstand
wedge-trans- gressive systems tract) consists of basinward-thinning siltstones
that drape the basin floor fans. The slope-to-basin distribution of lithofacies
is attributed to a three stage cycle of: 1) erosion, mass wasting, and sand bypass
on the slope with concurrent deposition from sand-rich flows on the basin floor,
2) progressive back-filling of feeder channels with variable fill during waning
stages of deposition, and 3) cessation of sand delivery to the basin and deposition
of laterally-extensive silt-stone wedges. Paleocurrents and channel distributions
indicate SE-E sediment transport from the NW basin margin via closely spaced point
sources.
Slope-to-basin variations in channel size, geometry and fill are related to
variations in the degree of bypass associated with channels and the timing of
channel backfill. On the slope, major feeder channels are deeply incised into
thick laminated siltstones, have simple margins, and are vertically stacked
due to proximity of fixed point sources. The channel fills are highly variable
in character, reflecting deposition from both lower and higher-energy flows
during late-stage backfilling. At the toe of slope, sandstones occur in nested,
multi-story channel complexes not confined by single, master erosion surfaces.
Channel bases are commonly marked by lenticular, coarse-grained lags deposited
from high-energy bypassing flows. Channel fills are complex, and indicate repeated
episodes of erosion, bypass, and backfilli, with thick-bedded sandstones concentrated
in channel axes and thin-bedded sandstones and siltstones preferentially preserved
along channel margins. In down-fan, more aggradational settings, lags are absent.
Channels are smaller, less complex, and simply filled with thick-bedded amalgamated
sandstones. These channels are relatively short-lived features that were rapidly
plugged by high-energy flows. In distal, predominantly nonchannelized areas
of the basin floor, sandstones form laterally extensive sheets that are broadly
lenticular as a result of minor erosion, depositional mounding, and compensational
stacking patterns.
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