A Newly Recognized Eastern Extension of the Nile Deep Sea Fan

Yehoshua Folkman and Yossi Mart
Haifa University, Haifa, Israel

The Nile deep sea fan (NDSF) is currently a prime exploration objective in the Mediterranean Sea due to recent major gas discoveries in Plio-Pleistocene channel complexes offshore Egypt. A previously unreported eastern extension of the NDSF has been revealed recently offshore Israel from high quality 3D seismic data that have been made available for academic study by the Israeli Oil Commissioner. Its recognition is based primarily on seismically imaged systems of seabed and sub-seabed submarine channel complexes, combined with the bathymetric setting.
In the studied area, off the continental margin of Israel, the gross thickness of the NDSF decreases seawards, from 1100m to 500m and it is underlain by thick massive Messinian salt. The fan complex is vertically divided into two units, exhibiting different architectural elements: a lower sand-rich unit and an upper mud-rich unit. The lower unit is uniformly bedded, possesses high seismic amplitudes and does not contain recognizable channels. These characteristics imply basin floor, sand rich, terminal turbidite sheets.
The complex sedimentary architecture of the upper unit results from interaction of three slope-environment processes: Periodic activity of turbidite channel complexes, slumping and hemi-pelagic deposition. In the upper unit, seismic high amplitude patterns appear to be embedded in an overall weak amplitude material, indicating a mud rich system with encased large sand bodies, mainly in channel complexes such as channel systems, flank deposits and lobe systems.
Both units are structured by salt tectonic folding and faulting, and appear to be a yet untested extension of the NDSF gas play. Owing to the underlying massive salt, the main exploration risk here is migration fairways from underlying sources.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece