Source-to-Sink Scaling Relationships, Sediment Budgets, and Landscape Evolution for Paleogene Gulf of Mexico Deep-Water Stratigraphic Predictions

Jacob Covault, Cristian Carvajal, Andrea Fildani, Kristy Milliken, Michael Pyrcz, Tao Sun, and Larry Zarra
[email protected]

We demonstrate that the regional tectono-stratigraphic context of the Paleogene Gulf of Mexico and scaling relationships of analog continental-margin deposits provide predictions of the basinward extents of deep-water fans of the Wilcox Formation away from ground-truth data. We also construct a Paleogene North America-Gulf of Mexico sediment budget, accounting for sources and sinks, to constrain the temporal and spatial distribution of sediment. Sediment supply is derived from empirical geomorphic relationships, as well as an integrated, source-to-sink numerical model of landscape evolution for denudation linked to fluvial and deltaic sediment transport and deposition. Knowledge of sediment supply from source areas can inform predictions of unaccounted deposits by assuming budget closure. These first-order predictions can be coupled with high-resolution, probabilistic geomorphic and stratigraphic scaling relationships to provide long-range trends in depositional facies and architecture that link to oil and gas reservoir modeling.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90167©2013 GCAGS and GCSSEPM 63^rd Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 6-8, 2013