Digital Outcrop Modeling of an Isolated Carbonate Platform. Stratigraphy and Diagenesis. Bonaire Dutch Caribbean Carbonate Reservoir Analogs

Abstract

Recently, three-dimensional modeling is a useful visualization tool to understand a realistic facies, deposit geometries, special distribution of diagenesis processes. These parameters are determinant controls in the porosity and permeability and therefore, the reservoir quality. Many different techniques have been used such as photogrammetry lidar and digital elevation models to generate a facies distribution also, help to construct stratigraphic models of the sedimentary successions. Our work focusses on enhancing the understanding the stratigraphy and diagenesis of the carbonate deposits of Miocene, and Pleistocene in the island of Bonaire. Bonaire is part of Netherlands Antilles which form Leeward Antilles ridge. This topographic feature is interpreted as a single Great Arc of the Caribbean that became inactive by the early Cenozoic. The complex Caribbean-South American plate boundary records a series of terrene collisions which have generated a number of pull-apart basins with high rates of subsidence, adjacent to uplifted blocks. These topographic highs allowed the deposition of isolated carbonate platforms along the northern offshore area of South America. Stratigraphy of Bonaire is composed by simple succession which comprises Cretaceous volcanic rocks (Basement), Eocene clastics called Seroe Blanco Formation following upwards to Miocene carbonates (Seroe Domi Formation) that can be found in Curacao and Aruba as well. Finally, Pleistocene-Holocene reef and shallow marine carbonates which cover an important part of the island. This study has produced a three-dimensional model of deposits in an isolated platform under a semi-arid climate. Also three-dimensional photorealistic models of facies distributions, where can be identified different mineralogy. In addition, this research supplies a 3D model of distribution of fresh-water diagenesis represented by highly karstified horizons and dissolution surfaces. Furthermore, Dolomite bodies on Miocene and Pleistocene units are present and show different distribution throughout the succession which suggest diverse stages of dolomitisation during the evolution of the platform.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90216 ©2015 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Denver, CO., May 31 - June 3, 2015