Normal Fault Growth Analysis of Australia's Southern Margin: Evidence From 3-D Seismic Reflection Data in the Ceduna Sub-Basin, Great Australian Bight and Deep-Water Otway Basin

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander G. Robson*
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Growth Analysis ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Southern Margin ◽  
Fault Growth ◽  
Great Australian Bight

Normal fault growth and segment linkage in a gravitationally detached delta system: evidence from 3D seismic reflection data from the Ceduna Sub-basin, Great Australian Bight

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 467
Author(s):  
Alexander Robson ◽  
Rosalind King ◽  
Simon Holford
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Fault Plane ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Listric Fault ◽  
Dip Angle ◽  
Fault Growth

The authors used three-dimensional (3D) seismic reflection data from the central Ceduna Sub-Basin, Australia, to establish the structural evolution of a linked normal fault assemblage at the extensional top of a gravitationally driven delta system. The fault assemblage presented is decoupled at the base of a marine mud from the late Albian age. Strike-linkage has created a northwest–southeast oriented assemblage of normal fault segments and dip-linkage through Santonian strata, which connects a post-Santonian normal fault system to a Cenomanian-Santonian listric fault system. Cenomanian-Santonian fault growth is on the kilometre scale and builds an underlying structural grain, defining the geometry of the post-Santonian fault system. A fault plane dip-angle model has been created and established through simplistic depth conversion. This converts throw into fault plane dip-slip displacement, incorporating increasing heave of a listric fault and decreasing in dip-angle with depth. The analysis constrains fault growth into six evolutionary stages: early Cenomanian nucleation and radial growth of isolated fault segments; linkage of fault segments by the latest Cenomanian; latest Santonian Cessation of fault growth; erosion and heavy incision during the continental break-up of Australia and Antarctica (c. 83 Ma); vertically independent nucleation of the post-Santonian fault segments with rapid length establishment before significant displacement accumulation; and, continued displacement into the Cenozoic. The structural evolution of this fault system is compatible with the isolated fault model and segmented coherent fault model, indicating that these fault growth models do not need to be mutually exclusive to the growth of normal fault assemblages.

scholarly journals A snapshot of the earliest stages of normal fault development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Alghuraybi ◽  
Rebecca Bell ◽  
Chris Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
Normal Faults ◽  
3D Seismic ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Fault Growth ◽  
Lateral Propagation

Despite decades of study, models for the growth of normal faults lack a temporal framework within which to understand how these structures accumulate displacement and lengthen through time. Here, we use borehole and high-quality 3D seismic reflection data from offshore Norway to quantify the lateral (0.2-1.8 mmyr-1) and vertical (0.004-0.02 mmyr-1) propagation rates (averaged over 12-44 Myr) for several long (up to 43 km), moderate displacement (up to 225 m) layer-bound faults that we argue provide a unique, essentially ‘fossilised’ snapshot of the earliest stage of fault growth. We show that lateral propagation rates are 90 times faster than displacement rates during the initial 25% of their lifespan suggesting that these faults lengthened much more rapidly than they accrued displacement. Although these faults have slow displacement rates compared with data compiled from 30 previous studies, they have comparable lateral propagation rates. This suggests that the unusual lateral propagation to displacement rate ratio is likely due to fault maturity, which highlights a need to document both displacement and lateral propagation rates to further our understanding of how faults evolve across various temporal and spatial scales.

Basement-involved inversion at the Appalachian structural front, western Newfoundland: an interpretation of seismic reflection data with implications for petroleum prospectivity

2004 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen S. Stockmal ◽  
Art Slingsby ◽  
John W.F. Waldron
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Hanging Wall ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Normal Faults ◽  
Apparent Magnitude ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
New Interpretation

Abstract Recent hydrocarbon exploration in western Newfoundland has resulted in six new wells in the Port au Port Peninsula area. Port au Port No.1, drilled in 1994/95, penetrated the Cambro-Ordovician platform and underlying Grenville basement in the hanging wall of the southeast-dipping Round Head Thrust, terminated in the platform succession in the footwall of this basement-involved inversion structure, and discovered the Garden Hill petroleum pool. The most recent well, Shoal Point K-39, was drilled in 1999 to test a model in which the Round Head Thrust loses reverse displacement to the northeast, eventually becoming a normal fault. This model hinged on an interpretation of a seismic reflection survey acquired in 1996 in Port au Port Bay. This survey is now in the public domain. In our interpretation of these data, the Round Head Thrust is associated with another basement-involved feature, the northwest-dipping Piccadilly Bay Fault, which is mapped on Port au Port Peninsula. Active as normal faults in the Taconian foreland, both these faults were later inverted during Acadian orogenesis. The present reverse offset on the Piccadilly Bay Fault was previously interpreted as normal offset on the southeast-dipping Round Head Thrust. Our new interpretation is consistent with mapping on Port au Port Peninsula and north of Stephenville, where all basement-involved faults are inverted and display reverse senses of motion. It also explains spatially restricted, enigmatic reflections adjacent to the faults as carbonate conglomerates of the Cape Cormorant Formation or Daniel’s Harbour Member, units associated with inverted thick-skinned faults. The K-39 well, which targeted the footwall of the Round Head Thrust, actually penetrated the hanging wall of the Piccadilly Bay Fault. This distinction is important because the reservoir model invoked for this play involved preferential karstification and subsequent dolomitization in the footwalls of inverted thick-skinned faults. The apparent magnitude of structural inversion across the Piccadilly Bay Fault suggests other possible structural plays to the northeast of K-39.

scholarly journals Extrusion dynamics of deep-water volcanoes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiliang Sun ◽  
Christopher A.-L. Jackson ◽  
Craig Magee ◽  
Samuel J. Mitchell ◽  
Xinong Xie
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Minor Component ◽  
Lava Flows ◽  
Lava Tubes ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Seafloor Sediments ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Seabed Sediments

Abstract. Submarine volcanism accounts for c. 75 % of the Earth's volcanic activity. Yet difficulties with imaging their exteriors and interiors mean the extrusion dynamics and erupted volumes of deep-water volcanoes remain poorly understood. Here, we use high-resolution 3-D seismic reflection data to examine the external and internal geometry, and extrusion dynamics of two Late Miocene-Quaternary, deep-water (> 2 km emplacement depth) volcanoes buried beneath 55–330 m of sedimentary strata in the South China Sea. The volcanoes have crater-like basal contacts, which truncate underlying strata, and erupted lava flows that feed lobate lava fans. The lava flows are > 9 km long and contain lava tubes that have rugged basal contacts defined by ~ 90 ± 23 m high erosional ramps. We suggest the lava flows eroded down into and were emplaced at shallow sub-surface depths within wet, unconsolidated, near-seafloor sediments. Extrusion dynamics were likely controlled by low magma viscosities, high hydrostatic pressures, and soft, near-seabed sediments, which collectively are characteristic of deep-water environments. Because the lava flows and volcanic edifices are imaged in 3D, we calculate the lava flows account for 50–97 % of the total erupted volume. Our results indicate deep-water volcanic edifices may thus form a minor component (~ 3–50 %) of the extrusive system, and that accurate estimates of erupted volume requires knowledge of the basal surface of genetically related lava flows. We conclude that 3D seismic reflection data is a powerful tool for constraining the geometry and extrusion dynamics of buried, deep-water volcanic features; such data should be used to image and quantify extrusion dynamics of modern deep-water volcanoes.

Seismic reflection profiles across the central Kapuskasing uplift

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1016-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain D. Leclair ◽  
John A. Percival ◽  
Alan G. Green ◽  
Jianjun Wu ◽  
Gordon F. West ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Gravity Models ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Geometry ◽  
Major Strike ◽  
Seismic Sections ◽  
Seismic Reflection Profiles

The central Superior Province is transected by the intracratonic Kapuskasing uplift, which contains rocks exhumed from 30 to 35 km paleodepth. As part of the Lithoprobe Kapuskasing transect, approximately 52 km of 16 s seismic reflection data were collected in the central segment of the uplift along three profiles that traverse the northern Groundhog River block, the bounding Saganash Lake fault, and the eastern Val Rita block. The seismic sections have the following characteristics in common: (i) a complexly reflective uppermost portion (< 1 s) limiting correlation of reflective zones and surface features; (ii) numerous subhorizontal, east- and west-dipping reflection zones; and (iii) a significant reduction in reflectivity beyond the refraction-defined Moho (~ 14 s). Beneath the Groundhog River block a series of straight, west-dipping (~ 20°) reflection zones between 2 and 10 s is underlain by subhorizontal reflections in the lower crust. Across the Saganash Lake fault, the Val Rita block is characterized by a maze of discontinuous, curvilinear reflections with general easterly dip down to 8 – 10 s, below which west-dipping events are prominent. A north–south cross profile reveals a highly reflective crust with dominantly horizontal reflection geometry below the Saganash Lake metavolcanic belt, and a steep truncation of reflection zones down to at least 7 s, which correlates with the surface trace of the Nansen Creek fault. This fault resembles well-known strike-slip faults in intraplate settings. The Saganash Lake fault, variably interpreted as a west-side-down normal fault with up to 15 km of throw or a major strike-slip zone, may be visible as a west-dipping, weakly reflective zone steeply truncating east-dipping reflections and becoming listric at depth. This interpretation accords with surface geological observations and gravity models for the structural geometry of the region in which the Groundhog River block is a thin thrust sheet of granulite perched on Abitibi belt rocks and truncated on the west by the crustal-scale Saganash Lake fault. Alternatively, the fault could be a seismically unresolved major transcurrent structure juxtaposing blocks with disparate reflection patterns in the upper 8 s. Limited amounts of late strike-slip motion have been inferred from various geophysical studies.

LITHOPROBE seismic reflection imaging of Rocky Mountain structures east of Canal Flats, British Columbia

1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 1339-1348 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. S. Eaton ◽  
Frederick A. Cook
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Seismic Data ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Processing Techniques ◽  
Surface Geology

LITHROPROBE seismic reflection data, coupled with information from industry seismic data and surface geology, image the thin-skinned structures of the western Rocky Mountains from the Main Ranges to the Rocky Mountain Trench near Canal Flats, British Columbia. Reprocessing of the LITHOPROBE seismic reflection line was conducted to improve resolution of upper-crustal features. Careful application of "conventional" processing techniques significantly improved the coherence of reflections from the first 6 s. A spatial semblance filter was applied to further enhance coherent signal, and residual-statics corrections were applied by cross correlation of unstacked data with semblance-filtered pilot traces.A near-basement reflection zone arising from Middle Cambrian strata is visible on an industry reflection profile at an approximate depth of 8 km beneath the Main Ranges. A similar reflection zone is imaged on the LITHOPROBE data at a depth of 11 km bsl but is interpreted as arising from Proterozoic strata. The autochthonous crystalline basement is interpreted as being below these layers and dipping about 2 °to the west. Geometric evidence is visible for several major thrust ramps involving the basal décollement and for an intermediate-level décollement that loses displacement into folds within the Porcupine Creek Anticlinorium. Reflections related to the Gypsum fault, the Redwall thrust, and the Lussier River normal fault are also imaged.

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