AAPG Bulletin, V. 83 (1999),
No. 1 (January 1999),
P. 43-61.
A Conceptual Tectonostratigraphic
Model for Seismic Facies Migrations in a Fluvio-Lacustrine Extensional
Basin1
Uwe Strecker,2
J. R. Steidtmann,3 and S. B. Smithson3
©Copyright 1999. The American Association of
Petroleum Geologists. All Rights Reserved
1Manuscript received April 29, 1996;
revised manuscript received March 13, 1998; final acceptance April 13,
1998.
2Sebastian-Kneipp-Str. 32, 37217 Witzenhausen,
Germany.
3Department of Geology & Geophysics,
University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071.
We thank Shell Western Exploration
and Production Incorporated (SWEPI) for permission to publish the seismic
data. Strecker thanks Ron Steel for discussion and improvements on an earlier
version of this manuscript. Reviews by R. M. Mitchum, J. J. Lambiase and
former AAPG Bulletin editor K. T. Biddle contributed to the final manuscript.
ABSTRACT
One of the most fundamental differences
between lacustrine basins and many marine basins is the stratigraphic response
to differential tectonic subsidence. Because the water volume of a lake
is finite, tilting of the valley floor redistributes the lake water. If
the lake water level is below a hinge point (fulcrum) that experiences
no net subsidence, the lake shoreline is translated toward the site of
subsidence, and a deeper lake forms. This tectonostratigraphic model for
rift-lake sedimentation is tested in a seismic and sequence stratigraphic
study of deltaic and lacustrine deposits that accumulated in a Cenozoic
extensional basin beneath Goshute Valley, Nevada. Seismic sequences exhibit
an internal, cyclic stacking hierarchy of seismic reflections interpreted
as the stratigraphic response of a lowstand paleolake to tectonism (forced
regression) and subsequent lake level restoration (transgressive and highstand
systems tracts).
