AAPG/GSTT HEDBERG CONFERENCE
“Mobile Shale Basins – Genesis, Evolution and
Hydrocarbon Systems”
The Style & Timing of Mud Volcanism in the Offshore
Nile
Peter A. Bentham, Mark Pasley & Christopher Birt
BP
Egypt Exploration, 14 Road 252, Digla, Maadi,
Mud volcanoes have long been recognized but not
systematically studied within the offshore Nile Delta of northern
Figure
1: The distribution and activity of mud-volcanoes within the central & western
Nile Delta, northern
There is a consistent correspondence
between the location of the mud volcanoes and the presence of underlying
Pre-Messinian structures that form many of the recent discoveries and future
drilling portfolio. These deep structures were most actively growing during
Middle Miocene time (Serravallian-Tortonian). It is
important to note, therefore, that while there is a clear spatial association between
the two, the growth of the deep structures, and the subsequent activity of the
mud volcanoes during the Pliocene-Recent does not overlap in time. Furthermore,
while the majority of the mud volcanoes have expression at the present-day sea
bottom, two important features (the Rahma and Satis
mud volcanoes) became inactive during Late Pliocene times, during the rapid
seaward progradation of the central Delta. Two styles of mud evacuation &
collapse can be observed, and the nature of these differences will be discussed
in the poster.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90057©2006 AAPG/GSTT Hedberg Conference, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago