--> Abstract: The Role of Evolving Relay Ramps in Controlling Clastic Sediment Dispersal and Reservoir Development, by B. Armstrong; #90940 (1997).

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Abstract: The Role of Evolving Relay Ramps in Controlling Clastic Sediment Dispersal and Reservoir Development

ARMSTRONG, BARRY

Extensional rift systems commonly consist of numerous individual, en echelon fault segments that propagate vertically and laterally. The relatively undeformed areas between fault segments are referred to as relay ramps. These dynamic structures frequently focus sediment into a basin before being dissected when the fault segments eventually link by propagation across the relay ramp. Despite their potential importance in controlling sediment dispersal patterns and hence clastic reservoir development relay ramps have received surprisingly little attention. The aim of this study is to use conventional field mapping, sedimentary logging techniques and sequence stratigraphic methods to investigate the history of a superbly exposed relay ramp in the 10 km{2} Wadi Wasit area in the eastern flank of the Suez Rift. The Suez Rift is uniquely disposed to such a study as the arid climate combined with Plio-Pliestocene uplift of the Oligo-Miocene clastic syn-rift and Eocene carbonate pre-rift sediments has ensured that the sedimentary units can be characterized in three dimensions in hangingwall and footwall areas as well as in the relay ramp itself.

Although sequence stratigraphic methods have been successfully applied in many tectonically stable settings, studies in the Jurassic strata of the North Sea and Neogene of Greece suggest that care is required when trying to apply it to syn-rift extensional settings. This study will provide an understanding of the interaction of tectonics, sedimentation and eustacy in the vicinity of a developing relay ramp and thus it will allow a critical evaluation of the Galloway and Exxon models of sequence development on an active extensional fault blocks.  

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90940©1997 AAPG Foundation Grants-in-Aid