Print this pageQUANTIFYING
AND LINKING DEPOSITIONAL TEXTURES OF PERMIAN BRUSHY CANYON FORMATION SANDSTONES
WITH FLUME EXPERIMENTS
Erik Kling, Colorado School of Mines,
Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Golden, CO, [email protected]
This study
relates changes in sorting, grain size, and matrix composition to velocity
structure and the role of carbonate matrix on turbulence suppression. Changes
in matrix concentration within experimental flows are compared with mapped outcrop
distribution of these textural attributes.
This investigation is part of an
integrated outcrop and subsurface study encompassing the 255 km2
Framework mineralogy, matrix
content, grain size, and sorting quantified from 80 thin sections correlates silty sand to silt content >9% and coarse-skewed grain
size distribution. Carbonate matrix >15% corresponds to this increased silt
content. Flume experiments were designed to establish whether enhanced silt
content is related to suppression of turbulence by micrite.
Sonic velocity probes measured turbulence in experimental flows with variable
carbonate proportions. Velocity structure of flows with transitional turbulent
properties over the critical range of carbonate proportions was measured.
Sampling the resultant deposits documents textural attributes to be compared
with petrographic and outcrop datasets.
Comparison of experimental, petrographic and outcrop data links hydrodynamic processes
to their deposits. Petrography provides quantitative textural data linked to outcrop
distributions providing local spatial context. Integration with regional data
provides basinal context. This approach links
fundamental physical processes to their temporal and spatial distribution with
the goal to produce a global predictive model that describes and reproduces
these subaqueous flow behaviors.