Trends in Bed Thickness and Facies of Turbiditic Sandstone Bodies: Unravelling the Effects of Basin Confinement, Depositional Processes, and Modes of Sediment Supply

Bersezio, R.; Felletti, Fabrizio; Riva, Simone G.; Micucci, L.

doi:10.2110/sepmsp.092.303

Cited by 15 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Differently from previous works on these systems (Bersezio et al 2005(Bersezio et al , 2009; Felletti and Bersezio 573 2010) only thickness measurements from the farthest locations available from basinal slopes are 574 discussed in this paper, to avoid any location bias (see Section 5.1). The exceedance probability 575 plots of thicknesses from both CTS and BCTS present an upward-convex character ('all beds',black line in Fig.…”

Section: The Cengio (Cts) and Bric La Croce-castelnuovo (Bcts) Turbidmentioning

confidence: 99%

The thick-bedded tail of turbidite thickness distribution as a proxy for flow confinement: Examples from tertiary basins of central and northern Apennines (Italy)

Marini

Felletti

Milli

et al. 2016

Sedimentary Geology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

8The assessment and meaning of turbidite thickness statistics represent open research questions 9 for both applied and pure sedimentology. Yet thickness data collected in the field are often 10 incomplete and/or biased toward or against certain thickness classes due to bed geometry, erosion 11 and/or operational filed constraints, which largely undermine tackling such questions. However, in 12 situations where turbidity currents are ponded by basin topography so to deposit basin-wide 13 tabular beds and erosion is negligible, some of the variables of the 'bed thickness equation' can be 14 relaxed, making easier to investigate what the primary controls on turbidite thickness statistics are. 15This study reviews the bed thickness statistics of the non-channelized parts of the infill of four 16 tertiary basins of Central-Northern Apennines (Italy), where bed geometry and sedimentary 17 character have been previously assessed. Though very different in terms of size and, arguably, 18 character of feeder system and source area, these basins share a common evolution to their 19 turbidite fill with upward transition from an early ponded to a late unconfined setting of deposition. 20Based on comparison of thickness subsets from diverse locations and stratigraphic heights within 21 the basin fills of the case studies, this paper seeks to answering the following questions: i) how 22 data collection choices and field operational constraints (e.g. location, outcrop quality, use of 23 thickness from single vs. multiple correlative sections, length of the stratigraphic section from which 24 thicknesses were retrieved) can affect statistics of an empirical distribution of turbidite thicknesses? 25 ii) how depositional controls of confined vs. unconfined basins can modify the initial thicknesses 26 distribution of turbidites?; iii) is there in turbidite thickness statistics a 'flow confinement' signature 27 2 which can be used to distinguish between confined and unconfined depositional settings? Results 28 suggests that: i) best practices of data collection are crucial to a meaningful interpretation of 29 turbidite thickness data, especially in presence of stratigraphic and spatial trends of bed thickness; 30 ii) a systematic bias against cm-thick Tcd Bouma sequence turbidites deposited by small volume 31 low density flows exists, which can significantly modify the low-end tail of an empirical frequency 32 distribution of bed thickness; iii) thickness statistics of beds starting with a basal Ta/Tb Bouma 33 division bear a coherent relationship to the transition from ponded to unconfined depositional 34 settings, consisting in a reduction of variance and mean and, consequently, modification of the 35 initial thickness-frequency scaling relationship. This research highlights the role of flow stripping, 36 sediment by-pass and bed geometry in altering the initial thickness distribution of ponded turbidites 37 suggesting how, on the contrary, fully ponded mini-basins represents the ideal setting for further 38 research link...

show abstract

Section: The Cengio (Cts) and Bric La Croce-castelnuovo (Bcts) Turbidmentioning

confidence: 99%

The thick-bedded tail of turbidite thickness distribution as a proxy for flow confinement: Examples from tertiary basins of central and northern Apennines (Italy)

Marini

Felletti

Milli

et al. 2016

Sedimentary Geology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…9; Beds 208, 210). Current ripple lamination, which can be present higher within the same bed, records palaeoflows that are more variable in direction, either parallel to or more commonly at a high angle away from the strike of the northern basin margin ( (Baruffini et al 1994;Felletti, 2002) and in a number of confined systems (Kneller et al, 1991;Haughton, 1994;Kneller and McCaffrey, 1999;McCaffrey and Kneller, 2001;Bersezio et al, 2009;Felletti and Bersezio, 2010) and experiments (Kneller et al, 1991). These characteristics are considered to represent contrasting responses of higher and lower concentration portions of the flow (e.g., deflection and reflection, respectively) to confining topography (e.g., Kneller and McCaffrey, 1999).…”

Section: Evolution Of Palaeoflow In Association With a Confining Basimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sufficiently wellpositioned exposure to capture this onlap relationship is lacking throughout the remainder of the study interval. In confined systems significantly thick turbiditic muds are often found above sandstone beds (e.g., ponded muds, Pickering and Hiscott, 1985;Haughton, 1994Haughton, , 2001 systems from topographically complex settings (e.g., Pickering and Hiscott, 1985;Kneller et al, 1991;Haughton, 1994;Kneller and McCaffrey, 1999;McCaffrey and Kneller, 2001;Bersezio et al, 2009;Felletti and Bersezio, 2010).…”

Section: Gravity Current Confinement and Containment Within The Castamentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of flow containment and substrate entrainment upon sandy hybrid event beds containing a co-genetic mud-clast-rich division

Southern

Patacci

Felletti

et al. 2015

Sedimentary Geology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…However, the details of these downstream and lateral facies changes are often overlooked, and very few studies perform correlations at the bed scale (e.g., Chapin and Tiller, 2007;Marini et al, 2015). Even fewer studies have compiled quantitative statistics on bed-scale facies variability (Clark, 1998;Bersezio et al, 2009;Marini et al, 2015;Tőkés and Pattacci, in press). Because event-beds (i.e., turbidites) are the building blocks of submarine depositional environments, these statistics need to be quantified to understand the linkages between geomorphology and stratigraphy, and how turbidity currents are responding to a seafloor that is continually modified by previous deposits (Prélat et al, 2009;Romans et al, 2009;Jobe et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of the Bed-scale Architecture of Submarine Depositional Environments and Application to Lobe Deposits of the Point Loma Formation, California

Fryer¹

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Submarine-fan deposits form the largest sediment accumulations on Earth and host significant reservoirs for hydrocarbons. While many studies of ancient fan deposits qualitatively describe lateral architectural variability (e.g., axis-to-fringe, proximal-to-distal), these relationships are rarely quantified. In order to enable comparison of key relationships that control the lateral architecture of submarine depositional environments, we digitized published bed-scale outcrop correlation panels from five different environments (channel, levee, lobe, channel-lobe-transition-zone, basin plain). Measured architectural parameters (bed thickness, bed thinning rates, lateral correlation distance, net-to-gross) provide a quantitative framework to compare lithology architectures between environments. The results show that sandstone and/or mudstone bed thickness alone or net-to-gross do not reliably differentiate between environments. Lobe sub-environments display the most variability in all parameters, which could be partially caused by subjectivity of qualitative interpretations of environment and demonstrates the need for more quantitative studies of bed-scale heterogeneity. These results can be used to constrain forward stratigraphic models and reservoir models of submarine depositional environments.

show abstract

Trends in Bed Thickness and Facies of Turbiditic Sandstone Bodies: Unravelling the Effects of Basin Confinement, Depositional Processes, and Modes of Sediment Supply

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

The thick-bedded tail of turbidite thickness distribution as a proxy for flow confinement: Examples from tertiary basins of central and northern Apennines (Italy)

The thick-bedded tail of turbidite thickness distribution as a proxy for flow confinement: Examples from tertiary basins of central and northern Apennines (Italy)

Influence of flow containment and substrate entrainment upon sandy hybrid event beds containing a co-genetic mud-clast-rich division

Quantification of the Bed-scale Architecture of Submarine Depositional Environments and Application to Lobe Deposits of the Point Loma Formation, California

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About