The Palaeogeographic Evolution of the World Since the Late Jurassic: Implications for Depositional Systems and Source-to-Sink Relationships

Markwick, Paul J.¹; Galsworthy, Amanda M.¹; Raynham, Lauren K.¹; Bailiff, Robert G.¹; Benny, Kate ¹; Harland, Melise ¹; Eue, Dorothea ¹; Campanile, Daniel ¹; Bonne, Kathelijne ¹; Hagan, Laura ¹; Mazur, Stanislaw ¹; Edgecombe, Emma ¹; Wrobel, Neil ¹
(1)GETECH Group plc., Leeds, United Kingdom.

Palaeogeography is an important tool in exploration. It provides the spatial context for understanding the juxtaposition of play elements, information on the underlying tectonic dynamics, and through the reconstruction of palaeolandscapes it can provide a predictive tool to understanding source to sink relationships and sediment supply. Palaeogeography is also an important boundary condition for Earth System models, the results of which give explorationists additional insights into the processes responsible for source, reservoir and seal facies deposition and distribution.

In this presentation we show the latest results from a new global study. The objective of this is to map the world’s tectonics, depositional environments and landscapes (including palaeodrainage) from the Late Proterozoic to the Present Day. This work is designed to provide explorationists with a tool for better understanding potential hydrocarbon-bearing basins, especially in frontier areas. Each map shows the position of contemporary base-level with depositional environments categorized according to their dominant setting, and tectonophysiographic terrains (representing sediment source areas above base-level), which are designated according to the last thermo-mechanical event to affect the area. Large-scale basin defining tectonic and structural elements, together with lithologies, are also shown. These maps are then converted to palaeoDEM’s representing the contemporary landscape (elevation and bathymetry), with explicitly defined palaeorivers and palaeodrainage basins that show the evolution of source to sink relationships through time. Any exploration pertinent data, including wells, fields, seismic lines etc., can then be plotted on these maps in order to better examine the evolution of each basin, play and petroleum system in 4D. We will also include a brief overview of the methodologies, a description of the underlying plate model, which is also new, and a summary of the datasets used in the compilations.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.