Print this pageAAPG GEO 2010 Middle East
Geoscience Conference & Exhibition
Innovative Geoscience Solutions – Meeting Hydrocarbon Demand in Changing Times
March 7-10, 2010 – Manama, Bahrain
3D Facies Modelling the Concarena - Reconstruction and Quantification of from Archetype Triassic Carbonate Platform in the Southern Alps (Italy)
(1) Fuels & Carbon Analyses, EnBW Trading GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany.
(2) Asset Development, EnBW Gas Midstream GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany.
The Concarena platform is an outstanding example for the transition from Ladinian to Carnian carbonate platform development in the Southern Alps. Two major stages of platform evolution are recorded, separated by a marked overturn from slight progradation to pathological progradation sensu Bosellini (1989). Due to the excellent preservation of all facies belts, a static 3D facies model can be constructed allowing for a detailed reconstruction of its geometric evolution. The geomodel is based upon outcrop studies with sampling and mapping campaigns, foto panel interpretation of unaccessible mountain faces, high resolution satellite imagery (Quickbird data) and digital elevation model (Iconos data). Min-max scenarios for carbonate production at platform top, reef and slope were established using 2D stratigraphic forward simulation. The volumetric determination of accumulated sediments allows for the first time the quantification and comparison of the carbonate factory at platform top, reef and slope during two platform stages originating from different A’/S’ conditions and separated by a turn-around point in base-level change. Whereas this turn-around point is recorded in other areas of the Lombardic Alps by a marked subaerial exposure surface on platform tops, high total subsidence rates at Concarena prevent the platform from distinct long-term emersion. The comparison of production rates adds further evidence to the importance of changing A’/S’ conditions for platform development from aggradation to progradation and hence to the slope-shedding model sensu Kenter et al. (2005) for high-rising carbonate platforms. This study furthermore underlines and quantifies the influence of “Tubiphytes” on the development of Triassic carbonate platforms. Large mounds-up to 4m in diameter and 1.5m in height-made up exclusively of “Tubiphytes” multisiphonatus are situated in back reef environments and uppermost slope settings. This is the second reported but strongly different occurrence of this “Tubiphytes” species outside the type locality on Hydra (Carnian “Pantokrator Limestone”, Greece).