New High-Resolution Geodynamic and Landscape Evolution Models From the Permian to the Present Day for North America

Abstract

Geodynamic models for North America have been reconstructed from the Permian to the Present Day (59 Stages). The maps have compilation scales of 1:5,000,000 and comprise tectonophysiographic, maximum regressive depositional system, and maximum transgressive depositional layers. The maps are good visual representations of the interactions between tectonics and sea level variations for each Stage, and they enable users to understand a region's geological evolution. They are an invaluable tool for providing history on sediment source and sinks over time and therefore give insights vital for future hydrocarbon exploration (especially so in North America where unconventional plays are important). Prior to this, we combined GDEs and tectonophysiographic terranes onto one map layer; these atlases were compiled at 1:20,000,000 scales. Therefore, useful information could easily be obtained on base-level changes and interactions between actively eroding and depositional areas. Additionally, these were on different plate models. Our new maps have been compiled on our latest, most robust plate model which has incorporated all feedback from previous work and uses a more detailed and comprehensive legend. The latter allowed for more geological information to be integrated onto the maps. New drainage databases have been built so that a more robust analysis can be incorporated onto the maps (again at a higher resolution). The last stage in building the palaeogeographic maps is the DEMs; these have also seen the application of new methods. A newly developed script has allowed the first pass of DEM results to be fully automated; thus, they are fully repeatable with no human subjectivity. Additionally, as the first phase of mapping allowed for a comprehensive global tectonic history, we have used that to understand the sum of recent and past tectonics which have resulted in particular landscape elevations. Moreover, as the maps have become more detailed, this has enabled better representation of geological features within the context of geometries. These results help to identify source to sink relationships and become powerful tools when combined with further evaluation from our climate, ocean, tide and lithofacies prediction models (the boundary conditions for which are obtained from our maps). Along with key geological times, maps that include the Western Interior Seaway will be shown to highlight the depositional differences between maximum and minimum transgression

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90259 ©2016 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 19-22, 2016