Clinoforms and clinothems: Fundamental elements of basin infill

Abstract

This special issue dealing with the recent advances on modern and ancient clinoform‐stratified sedimentary successions arises from a European Geoscience Union (EGU) session “Clinoform drivers and stratigraphic products in siliciclastic and carbonate successions”, Vienna, April 2018. Clinoforms and clinothems represent a dominant architectural style of strata in many sedimentary environments, including deltaic and nondeltaic shorelines in both marine and lacustrine settings, and are one of the key building blocks of the sedimentary record. This Special Issue in Basin Research aspires to represent a step forward in understanding formation and preservation of these fundamental stratigraphic elements. As this Special Issue documents, a comprehensive understanding of clinoformal strata requires a multidisciplinary and multi‐scale approach. Sixteen papers present case studies from a variety of tectonic settings worldwide, investigated with an array of methods, including seismo‐stratigraphy, well logs, cores, high‐resolution biostratigraphy, outcrop studies and modern bathymetric data. While observations document sedimentary processes and products in sedimentary basins, numerical models are necessary to provide a quantitative basis for the extrapolation of these processes and strata at different temporal and spatial scales. The papers highlight at least five main research avenues that we briefly introduce and discuss below: (a) clinoforms and clinothems as sedimentary archives; (b) the nested nature of clinoformal strata and implications for the trajectory of the rollover point(s); (c) quantitative clinoform parameters and dynamic indices; (d) architecture, growth and sequence stratigraphy of marine versus lacustrine clinoformal strata; and (e) clinoforms and geological time. This introduction also contains brief descriptions of each paper of the Special Issue.

Exceptional preservation of a barred shoreline under forced‐regressive conditions (Lower Cretaceous, Neuquén Basin, Argentina)

“…These low to high‐angle (up to 10°), tangential and erosional clinoforms, can be traced for up to 2 km in dip section (Fig. 8), being scale‐equivalent to clinoforms described in shelf‐edge environments (Patruno & Helland‐Hansen, 2018; Pellegrini et al ., 2020). As bounding surfaces of successive wedge‐shaped clinothems, these clinoforms are reflected in the sedimentary record by the contact between siliciclastic upper‐shoreface facies below and mixed upper‐shoreface facies above (Fig.…”

Coastal sandy spit deposits (Lower Burdigalian/Eggenburgian) in the Alpine-Carpathian Foredeep of Lower Austria

“…Prograding clastic clinoforms as a fun da men tal el e ment of the ba sin infill have at tracted an em i nent at ten tion in the sedimentological lit er a ture es pe cially for their im por tance in petro leum in dus try and as an ex cel lent palaeoenvironmental archive. They can pro vide valu able in for ma tion about the tectono-strati graphic evo lu tion of the depositional sys tem, includ ing rates of progradation, aggradation and sed i ment flux (Patruno et al, 2015;Pellegrini et al, 2020). Al though three major scales of clinoforms can be dif fer en ti ated on the ba sis of verti cal re lief of the foresets (Pellegrini et al, 2020), their depositional en vi ron ment is mostly con nected with del tas (commonly Gilbert-type ones), lin ear shore lines or larger-scale shelf mar gins (e.g., Colella et al, 1987;Massari and Parea, 1990;Nemec, 1990;Hampson and Storms, 2003;Breda et al, 2007;Longhitano, 2008;Zecchin et al, 2010;Patruno et al, 2015).…”

“…They can pro vide valu able in for ma tion about the tectono-strati graphic evo lu tion of the depositional sys tem, includ ing rates of progradation, aggradation and sed i ment flux (Patruno et al, 2015;Pellegrini et al, 2020). Al though three major scales of clinoforms can be dif fer en ti ated on the ba sis of verti cal re lief of the foresets (Pellegrini et al, 2020), their depositional en vi ron ment is mostly con nected with del tas (commonly Gilbert-type ones), lin ear shore lines or larger-scale shelf mar gins (e.g., Colella et al, 1987;Massari and Parea, 1990;Nemec, 1990;Hampson and Storms, 2003;Breda et al, 2007;Longhitano, 2008;Zecchin et al, 2010;Patruno et al, 2015). Gen er ally smaller, both in ar eal ex tent and vol u met ri cally, are coastal spits i.e.…”

Topset-to-forest rollover trajectories as reliable predictors of sediment-volume partitioning into deep-lake areas

“…In the past 20 year or so, concepts of shelf-edge trajectories have been widely used to investigate stratigraphy and sedimentology of deepwater siliciclastic systems in marine basins. They have been the subject of increasingly intense studies in recent years and have been proved to be useful predictors of the relative amounts of sediments or sands passed to deep-water areas, which constitute over 15% of siliciclastic hydrocarbon reservoirs and are important exploration targets worldwide (e.g., Helland-Hansen and Hampson 2009;Henriksen et al 2009;Gong et al 2016;Pellegrini et al 2020). For example, flat to slightly falling shelf-edge trajectories are widely considered as the proxy for delivering significant volumes of coarse clastics into the deep sea (Gong et al 2015(Gong et al , 2016Cosgrove et al 2018;Paumard et al 2018;Pellegrini et al 2017Pellegrini et al , 2020.…”

“…They have been the subject of increasingly intense studies in recent years and have been proved to be useful predictors of the relative amounts of sediments or sands passed to deep-water areas, which constitute over 15% of siliciclastic hydrocarbon reservoirs and are important exploration targets worldwide (e.g., Helland-Hansen and Hampson 2009;Henriksen et al 2009;Gong et al 2016;Pellegrini et al 2020). For example, flat to slightly falling shelf-edge trajectories are widely considered as the proxy for delivering significant volumes of coarse clastics into the deep sea (Gong et al 2015(Gong et al , 2016Cosgrove et al 2018;Paumard et al 2018;Pellegrini et al 2017Pellegrini et al , 2020. Despite significant improvements in our understanding of marine shelf-edge trajectories and their relation to sand-and sediment-volume partitioning into deepwater, possible relationships between lacustrine topset-to-forest rollover trajectories and relative amounts of sediments and sands passed to deep-lake floors remain to be formulated and tested (e.g., Sztanó et al 2013;Gong et al 2019b).…”