Deep Water Turbidite Systems

This third volume in the IAS Reprint Series reviews some of themajor contributions that have been made over the last twenty yearsto our understanding of deep water environments. Few groups ofrocks have received as much attention in recent years as deep seasands and yet retained so many unsolved problems - How far and howfast can sediment debris flows travel? Do the many ancient seriesthat have been interpreted as submarine fan deposits bear anyresemblance to present day deep sea flows? How valid are thesequences described as coarsening upward or fining upward, and howshould they be interpreted? This timely review of contributionsmade to this area of study since 1970 reflects the heightenedinterest that has surrounded it. Deep Water Turbidite Systems contains 22 papers(reproduced in full) and 22 abstracts of papers that have appearedin the journal Sedimentology, concerned with the broadspectrum of topics within the field of turbidites and associateddeep water systems. If you are a member of the International Association ofSedimentologists, for purchasing details, please see:http://www.iasnet.org/publications/details.asp?code=RP3

Deepwater Sedimentary Systems: Science, Discovery and Applications helps readers identify, understand and interpret deepwater sedimentary systems at various scales – both onshore and offshore. This book describes the best practices in the integration of geology, geophysics, engineering, technology and economics used to inform smart business decisions in these diverse environments. It draws on technical results gained from deepwater exploration and production drilling campaigns and global field analog studies. With the multi-decadal resilience of deepwater exploration and production and the nature of its inherent uncertainty, this book serves as the essential reference for companies, consultancies, universities, governments and deepwater practitioners around the world seeking to understand deepwater systems and how to explore for and produce resources in these frontier environments. From an academic perspective, readers will use this book as the primer for understanding the processes, deposits and sedimentary environments in deep water – from deep oceans to deep lakes. This book provides conceptual approaches and state-of-the-art information on deepwater systems, as well as scenarios for the next 100 years of human-led exploration and development in deepwater, offshore environments. The students taught this material in today’s classrooms will become the leaders of tomorrow in Earth’s deepwater frontier. This book provides a broad foundation in deepwater sedimentary systems. What may take an individual dozens of academic and professional courses to achieve an understanding in these systems is provided here in one book. Presents a holistic view of how subsurface and engineering processes work together in the energy industry, bringing together contributions from the various technical and engineering disciplines Provides diverse perspectives from a global authorship to create an accurate picture of the process of deepwater exploration and production around the world Helps readers understand how to interpret deepwater systems at various scales to inform smart business decisions, with a significant portion of the workflows derived from the upstream energy industry

Historically, submarine-mass failures or mass-transport deposits have been a focus of increasingly intense investigation by academic institutions particularly during the last decade, though they received much less attention by geoscientists in the energy industry. With recent interest in expanding petroleum exploration and production into deeper water-depths globally and more widespread availability of high-quality data sets, mass-transport deposits are now recognized as a major component of most deep-water settings. This recognition has lead to the realization that many aspects of these deposits are still unknown or poorly understood. This volume contains twenty-three papers that address a number of topics critical to further understanding mass-transport deposits. These topics include general overviews of these deposits, depositional settings on the seafloor and in the near-subsurface interval, geohazard concerns, descriptive outcrops, integrated outcrop and seismic data/seismic forward modeling, petroleum reservoirs, and case studies on several associated topics. This volume will appeal to a broad cross section of geoscientists and geotechnical engineers, who are interested in this rapidly expanding field. The selection of papers in this volume reflects a growing trend towards a more diverse blend of disciplines and topics, covered in the study of mass-transport deposits.

This publication reflects a growing appreciation of the extent to which turbidite depositional system development is fundamentally affected by basin-floor topography. In the many turbidite and turbidite hydrocarbon reservoirs, depositional patterns have been moderately to strongly confined by pre-existing slopes. This volume examines aspects of sediment dispersal and accumulation in deep-water systems where sea-floor topography has exerted a decisive control on deposition, and explores the associated controls on hydrocarbon reservoir architecture and heterogeneity.

Accompanying CD-ROM includes additional illustrations and material.

The Frontiers in Sedimentary Geology series was established for the student, the researcher, and the applied scientist to enhance their potential to stay abreast of the most recent ideas and developments and to become familiar with certain topics in the field of sedimentary geology. This series deals with subjects that are in the forefront of both scientific and economic interests. The treatment of a subject in an individual volume, therefore, should be a combina tion of topical, regional, and interdisciplinary approaches. The interdisciplinary aspects are becoming more and more important because most studies dealing with the natural sciences cannot effectively stand alone. Although this thrust may sound simple, in reality it is not, basi cally because each discipline has developed its own jargon and definitions ofterms. Communi cation among disciplines is a major issue and can be accomplished more constructively when people with different backgrounds join together at the same symposium and can read from the same volume rather than confining themselves within the world of their own specialty meetings and journals. Books in this series provide this connective link between disciplines. Each book in this series provides a continuous and connected flow of concepts throughout the volume by the use of introductory chapters that outline a topic to help the reader grasp its problems and to understand the contributions that follow.