--> Patterns of Growth Sedimentation in the Fold-and-Thrust Belts of the Deepwater Niger Delta and Offshore Brazil, Corredor, Freddy, #90100 (2009)

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Patterns of Growth Sedimentation in the Fold-and-Thrust Belts of the Deepwater Niger Delta and Offshore Brazil

Corredor, Freddy1

1Pyxis Exploration Ltd, Bogota, Colombia.

The fold and thrust belts of deep water Niger Delta and offshore Brazil are the product of contraction due to gravity-driven extension on the shelf of the passive margins of west Africa and eastern South America. Active folding and thrusting above a week detachment level is strongly influenced by local changes in rates of sedimentation above individual thrust sheets affecting the multiple stages of growth of fault-related folds (i.e. crest uplift or crest broadening), and the regional sequences of imbrication. The deep water Niger Delta and offshore Brazil offer an outstanding opportunity to describe and understand the patterns of growth sedimentation that result from multiple and complex kinematics, the relative timing of formation of individual thrust sheets within regional thrust systems, and the overall evolution of fold and thrust belts in passive margins. The interpretation and restoration of depth converted regional seismic sections across these fold and thrust belts help to resolve the structural styles, the timing and sequences of thrusting, the relative changes in sedimentation across these systems, as well as the regional amounts of shortening, all of which have important implications for hydrocarbon maturation and charge in these deep water systems. Shear and conventional imbricate fault-bend fold kinematics are invoked to model the tectonics of these systems, and the resulting patterns of growth sedimentation.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90100©2009 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition 15-18 November 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil