Forward stratigraphic modelling of sediment pathways and depocentres in salt‐influenced passive‐margin basins: Lower Cretaceous, central Scotian Basin

Abstract

Source-to-sink studies and numerical modelling software are increasingly used to better understand sedimentary basins, and to predict sediment distributions. However, predictive modelling remains problematic in basins dominated by salt tectonics. The Lower Cretaceous delta system of the Scotian Basin is well suited for source-to-sink studies and provides an opportunity to apply this approach to a region experiencing active salt tectonism. This study uses forward stratigraphic modelling software and statistical analysis software to produce predictive stratigraphic models of the central Scotian Basin, test their sensitivity to different input parameters, assess proposed provenance pathways, and determine the distribution of sand and factors that control sedimentation in the basin. Models have been calibrated against reference wells and seismic surfaces, and implement a multidisciplinary approach to define simulation parameters. Simulation results show that previously proposed provenance pathways for the Early Cretaceous can be used to generate predictive stratigraphic models, which simulate the overall sediment distribution for the central Scotian Basin.Modelling confirms that the shaly nature of the Naskapi Member is the result of tectonic diversion of the Sable and Banquereau rivers and suggests additional episodic diversion during the deposition of the Cree Member. Sand is dominantly trapped on the shelf in all units, with transport into the basin along salt corridors and as a result of turbidity current flows occurring in the Upper Missisauga Formation and Cree Member. This led to sand accumulation in minibasins with a large deposit seawards of the Tantallon M-41 well. Sand also appears to bypass the basin via salt corridors which lead to the down-slope edge of the study area. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the grain size of source sediments to the system is the controlling factor of sand distribution. The methodology applied to this basin has applications to other regions complicated by salt tectonics, and where sediment distribution and transport from source-to-sink remain unclear.

4D forward stratigraphic modelling of the Late Quaternary Congo deep-sea fan: Role of climate/vegetation coupling in architectural evolution

“…This module provides the opportunity to launch a "multi-realisation simulation" to test the effects of the variations of the input parameters in response surface modelling (RSM, e.g. Gervais et al, 2017 ;Hawie et al, 2019;Sangster et al, 2019). Then, Monte-Carlo sampling of the RSM can be performed to determine a probabilistic distribution of the responses of the models.…”

“…With this objective, recent studies have moved toward forward modelling; more specifically, slope-and water-driven diffusion process-based simulations have already shown their usefulness in investigating sedimentary transfers in continental shelf and deep-water systems using short computation times (Kaufman et al, 1991;Granjeon and Joseph, 1999;Steckler et al, 1999;Rabineau et al, 2005;Lai and Capart, 2007;Mitchell and Huthnance, 2008;Alzaga-Ruiz et al, 2009;Csato et al, 2013;Seard et al, 2013;Gvirtzman et al, 2014;Leroux et al, 2014;Deville et al, 2015). However, investigations of the architecture of turbidite systems on abyssal plains using diffusion models at a "source-to-sink" scale are very recent (Deville et al, 2015;Hawie et al, 2018;Burgress et al, 2019;Hawie et al, 2019;Sangster et al, 2019) and need to be enriched and confirmed by additional studies.…”

Controlling Factors Analyses of Sediment Dispersal From Source-to-Sink Systems of Lacustrine Rift Basin: A Case Study From Paleogene Shahejie-Dongying Formations of Nanpu Sag, Eastern China

“…Fault activity is one of the most influential forms of tectonic activity in the rift basins. Previous studies on the control effect of fault activity on sediment dispersion have achieved fruitful results (Wang et al, 2002;Ren et al, 2004;Lin et al, 2007;Feng and Xu, 2006;Liu et al, 2019;Sangster et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2020). However, there is still no accepted pattern that can perfectly explain the controlling factors of sediment dispersion in all basins, which requires us to select typical cases for further study.…”

Sedapp: a non-linear diffusion-based forward stratigraphic model for shallow marine environments

“…Computer modelling can help resolve this problem. The methodology is usually called forward stratigraphic modelling (FSM) (Griffiths and Hadler-Jacobsen, 1995;Dalman and Weltje, 2012;Sangster et al, 2019), although it was also called stratigraphic forward modelling (Burgess, 2006;Sacchi et al, 2015;2016;Ding et al, 2019), basin filling modelling (Syvitski and Hutton, 2001;Hutton and Syvitski, 2008;Li et al, 2020), and stratigraphic simulation (Rivenaes, 1992;1997;Lawrence et al, 40 1990), etc.…”