The Sedimentology and Sequence Stratigraphy of the Hanifa Formation Outcrop, Wadi Birk, Saudi Arabia

A.S. Al-Mojel¹ and C. Kerans ²

Abstract

This study on the depositional facies, cycle hierarchy, and 1D cycle stacking of the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) Hanifa Formation at Wadi Birk represents one of the first attempts to apply modern sequence stratigraphic data from outcrop analogs to improve our understanding of Hanifa reservoirs regionally.

The Hanifa section is 140 m thick and contains ten depositional lithofacies, including: 1) calcareous shale, 2) clay-rich pelletal mudstone, 3) Planolites-burrowed mudstone, 4) horizontal bioturbated peloidal wackestone, 5) Thalassinoides peloidal Packstone/grain-dominated packstone, 6) swaley-hummocky stratified intraclastic grainstone/rudstone, 7) stromatoporoid build-up, 8) skeletal peloidal grainstone, 9) oncoidal grainstone/rudstone, and 10) coated-grain grainstone.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90188 ©GEO-2014, 11th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition, 10-12 March 2014, Manama, Bahrain