Journal of Sedimentary Research, 2007, v.

77, 225–238
Research Article
DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2007.024

THREE-DIMENSIONAL SEISMIC ARCHITECTURE OF FLUVIAL SEQUENCES ON THE LOW-GRADIENT

SUNDA SHELF, OFFSHORE INDONESIA

Y. DARMADI,* B.J. WILLIS,{ AND S.L. DOROBEK1

Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77845-3115, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT: The sequence stratigraphy of fluvial–deltaic strata deposited near the center of the wide, gradually subsiding
Sunda Shelf differs from standard highstand examples because low accommodation and low depositional gradients restricted
the thickness of fluvial–deltaic sequences and the depth of lowstand fluvial incision. In this setting sea-level fluctuations may
have had less influence on fluvial depositional patterns, and fluvial stratigraphy is more likely to be defined by changes in river
discharge during gradual aggradation. The upper Muda Formation in West Natuna Basin, offshore Indonesia, is a 225-m-thick,
dominantly fluvial succession that prograded onto the middle part of the Sunda shelf from Pliocene to Holocene. The succession
changes upward from offshore shelf deposits, through a thin interval of deltaic deposits, a succession of fluvial deposits, and
finally a thin transgressive succession directly beneath the modern sea floor.
A high-resolution seismic survey (17 km by 40 km in area) of Belida Field near the middle of the Sunda shelf provides
exceptional images of changing fluvial architecture within five erosionally based, fluvial sequences. Sequences, each several tens
of meters thick, are characterized by low-relief basal incisions that extend laterally onto interfluves cut by a network of gullies.
Although a regressive stacking pattern of successive sequences is defined to some extent by an increase in the relief of basal
erosion and a decrease in average sequence thickness, it is best defined by progressive increase in the extent of gully formation
onto interfluve areas (indicating longer periods of interfluve exposure).
Channel size tends to decrease upward within individual sequences, recording both a decrease in the size of the largest
channels and greater preservation of smaller tributary and floodplain drainage channels. The largest channels preserved directly
above the better developed sequence boundaries tend to be more sinuous and to have more extensive inner-bend accretion
deposits than those that cut down from horizons higher within sequences. This suggests that incised channels had more stream
power to erode their banks relative to the sediment loads they carried. Although mechanisms controlling the episodic shallow
incision and then aggradation of these fluvial systems are difficult to constrain from variations observed in this small study area,
the consistent thickness of the Muda Formation observed in regional 2D seismic sections is evidence against significant
syndepositional tectonic deformation or differential subsidence. Low regional gradients and great distance of the study area
from the paleo-shelf edge (, 1000 km) are evidence against direct sea-level influence. Larger channel sizes directly above
sequence boundaries supports temporal changes in channel discharge, perhaps related to climatic changes within the drainage
basin. Recognition of episodic channel incision and bypass alternating with periods of floodplain aggradation influences
predictions of channel-deposit connectivity based on channel proportion.

INTRODUCTION
Vertical changes in channel patterns within fluvial successions have
been widely inferred in sequence stratigraphic models of fluvial systems.
Stratigraphic predictions are generally based on alluvial architecture
models (Leeder 1978; Allen 1978; Bridge and Leeder 1979), combined
with ideas about changes in sediment aggradation rates of nearshore
sediments during changes in sea level (Shanley and McCabe 1991, 1993;
Wright and Marriott 1993; Plint et al 2001; Olsen et al 1995; Legarreta
* Present address: ConocoPhillips Indonesia, Gatot Subroto, Jakarta 12930,
Indonesia
{ Present address: Chevron Energy Technology Company, 1500 Louisiana
Street, Houston, Texas 77002, U.S.A.
1 Present address: Maersk Oil and Gas, Esplanaden 50, 1263 Copenhagen K,
Denmark
and Uliana 1998; Posamentier 2001; see also recent review in Blum and
Törnqvist 2000). These models generally predict that fluvial gradients
steepen and floodplain widths decrease as aggradation slows and river
channels incise during sea-level fall, leading to preferential preservation of
channel deposits relative to overbank deposits and braided channel
patterns. Sea-level rise is predicted to decrease fluvial gradients and widen
floodplains as sediments aggrade and river incisions fill, leading to greater
preservation of floodplain deposits and meandering channel patterns.
Based on these general ideas, sandier fluvial successions have commonly
been interpreted as deposits of braided river systems, and muddier fluvial
successions as deposits of meandering river systems.
Studies of fluvial architecture in outcrop typically provide only isolated
two-dimensional views of fluvial architecture. Although vertical varia-
tions in the proportion of channel to overbank deposits over tens to
hundreds of meters are commonly observed, few examples have adequate
age control to constrain changes in aggradation rate associated with

Copyright E 2007, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) 1527-1404/07/077-225/$03.00

226 B.J. WILLIS ET AL.
observed upsection changes in the proportion of channel deposits. It is
also generally difficult to define changes in channel pattern from vertical
cross sections (Bridge 1985). The result is that most stratigraphic studies
of ancient fluvial deposits are strongly inferential with regards to links
between channel-deposit abundance, aggradation rate, and channel
pattern and few studies provide robust tests of these ideas.
Recent studies of Quaternary fluvial systems that have been extensively
cored and dated (e.g., Blum 1993; Törnqvist 1993; Blum et al 1996; Tebbens
et al. 1999; Törnqvist et al. 2000; Blum and Törnqvist 2000) are beginning
to provide a more complex picture of controls on fluvial architecture.
Variations in sea level and climate are better known for these younger time
intervals, and thus extrabasinal controlling factors are better constrained.
In some cases, these studies have also documented temporal changes in
channel patterns based on examination of abandoned river courses or
preserved terraces (e.g., Starkel 1991; Blum et al. 1995; Aslan and Autin
1999). One important insight from Quaternary studies is that climatic
changes that affect fluvial water and sediment discharge are probably as
important as sea-level variations in defining alluvial architecture. For
example, Blum and Lancaster (2005) showed that deepest incision of the
Mississippi valley occurred during the beginning of eustatic sea-level rise as
melting continental glaciers within the drainage basin significantly
increased high river discharges. Khadkikar and Rajshekhar (2005)
indicated that rivers incised along the western coast of India during the
most recent period of eustatic sea-level rise due to increased river discharges
related to intensification of monsoon rainfall. A limitation of Quaternary
stratigraphic studies is that for the most part they give insight only into
fluvial–deltaic response to the very rapid sea-level changes that characterize
the last eustatic cycle, and that changes in fluvial architecture are defined
JSR
FIG. 1.—Ancient drainage patterns across the
southwestern South China Sea (Sunda shelf) that
formed during the Last Glacial Maximum and
possibly also during older Quaternary eustatic
lowstands (after Pelejero et al. 1999). Map shows
shallow shelf areas exposed during lowstands
and major paleo-drainage systems that can be
identified by present-day seafloor bathymetry
(Molengraaff 1921; Tjia 1980). Belida Field,
located in the broad shallow southwestern part
of the South China Sea, is nearly 1000 kilometers
away from the continental shelf edge and a few
hundred kilometers basinward of the modern
shoreline. Inset map of the study area shows
intersection of each 200th north–south cross-line
and east–west inline seismic traces (dots), loca-
tion of the seismic cross section in Figure 3
(dashed line A–A9), and the outline of the area
shown in Figures 4 and 5.
only by isolated cores and river cutbank exposures (rare exceptions to the
latter include the unprecedented coring studies of the Rhine–Meuse delta,
summarized in Berendsen and Stouthamer 2001).
Improvements in 3D seismic acquisition and processing show promise in
providing new views of changing alluvial architecture. Although 3D seismic
records do not show the details of facies variations that can be documented
in large outcrops, nor are they constrained by the resolution of dating
achieved in some studies of Quaternary deposits, they have vertical and
lateral extent and continuity that is far beyond that which can be obtained
using other methods. Most importantly for analysis of alluvial architectural
models, 3D seismic volumes can be used to link records of vertical changes
in channel-deposit abundance and incision depth with planview changes in
channel-deposit width, distribution, and pattern. The few published studies
of fluvial deposits documented by modern 3D seismic data show
magnificent views of complex channel-body geometries and floodplain
features imaged in horizontal time slices (e.g., Burnett 1996; Carter 2003;
Posamentier 2001; Miall 2002; Zeng and Hentz 2004). Additional studies
are needed that better link vertical variations with planview changes of
fluvial deposits before the full potential of these new data in assessing
alluvial architecture models will be realized.
This study is based on a 3D seismic survey of Belida field in the West
Natuna Basin, South China Sea (Fig. 1). The focus is on the Pliocene to
Holocene river-dominated, upper Muda Formation, which contains
fluvial features that are well imaged in this seismic volume. The goal of
this study is to relate stratigraphic variations defined by vertical changes
in channel size and abundance with planview changes in the distribution
and pattern of observed channel bodies and evaluate possible factors that
may have caused these changes.
JSR MUDA FORMATION THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLUVIAL ARCHITECTURE 227

FIG. 2.—Seismic cross section and chronostratigraphy of Belida Field, West Natuna Basin (after Palynova 2003). Hydrocarbon reservoirs are found within inverted
half-graben structures (below 750 ms twtt). The Muda Formation, formed during approximately the last 10 Myr, was deposited after tectonic inversion had ended and
the region gradually subsided. The base of the Muda Formation is defined by an abrupt fining to shale, above an interval of channels in the uppermost Arang Formation.
This study addresses an interval with increasing channels in the upper 500 ms twtt of this seismic record.

GEOLOGIC SETTING
The West Natuna Basin consists of a series of small, roughly east–west
oriented depocenters with intervening basement ridges that formed
during Paleogene rifting across the southern South China Sea (‘‘Sunda
shelf’’) region (Fig. 1; White and Wing 1978; Wongsosantiko and
Wirojudo 1984; Daines 1985; Ginger et al. 1993; Murray 2003). Many
half-graben depocenters of the West Natuna Basin experienced significant
contraction during late Oligocene to Miocene time, which formed the
‘‘Sunda Folds,’’ classical examples of inverted basins (Ginger et al. 1993;
Olson and Dorobek 2000). The Upper Miocene to Recent Muda
Formation, about 600–750 m thick, is a broadly recognized lithostrati-
graphic unit in the West Natuna Basin that formed during a period of
slow regional subsidence after inversion had ended around 10 Ma
(Ginger et al. 1993; Phillips et al. 1997; Madon and Watts 1998; McClay
and Bonora 1998; Murray 2003). Thus, strata of the Muda Formation are
largely undeformed.
The Muda Formation is defined at its base by a thick interval of outer-
shelf mudstone facies that generally define the topseal for underlying
sandstone and carbonate reservoirs in many basins across the Sunda shelf
(Mattes 1979; Cossey et al. 1982; Sutoto 1991; Mayall et al. 1995; Michael
and Adrian 1996; Matthews et al. 1997; Maynard and Murray, 2003). The
Muda Formation was generally thought to consist entirely of marine
mudstones before the 1990s, because well logs and drill cuttings were
rarely collected until deeper hydrocarbon-bearing intervals were pene-
trated. Recent studies have combined high-resolution seismic data and
shallow sediment cores to document variations within the upper 50–
100 m of the Muda Formation and its lateral stratigraphic equivalents.
These studies demonstrated that shallow intervals of the Muda
Formation consist of deposits that formed during the last sea-level cycle,
including: (1) fluvial channels deposited during the Last Glacial
Maximum lowstand, (2) transgressive deposits formed during the post-
Pleistocene sea-level rise, and (3) shallow-shelf deposits formed during the
present-day highstand (e.g., Aleva 1973; Batchelor 1979; Emmel and
Curray 1982; Evans et al. 1995; Hanebuth and Statteger 2003; Wong et al.
2003). Deeper intervals of the Muda Formation remain poorly
documented.
Belida field, in the western part of West Natuna Basin (Maynard et al.
2003), is in the center of the Sunda shelf, nearly 1000 km up dip (west) of
the modern shelf slope break. Currently in 56 m deep water, this area is
likely to have been subaerially exposed during Pliocene to Holocene
maximum glacio-eustatic lowstands (Fig. 1). Undeformed post-inversion
strata in Belida field (Fig. 2), including the uppermost Arang Formation
and the overlying Muda Formation, can be divided into three intervals.
Seismically, each of these intervals is defined by strata with channel-form
reflections that are separated by strata with more-continuous horizontal
228 B.J. WILLIS ET AL.
reflections. Each interval is estimated to record several million years of
deposition, on the basis of proprietary biostratigraphic data from a well
in an adjacent area of the West Natuna Basin (Darmadi 2005) and by
comparisons with Morley et al. (2003). The oldest of these intervals
include channel-form reflections and overlying parallel-horizontal reflec-
tions in the upper Arang Formation that may have been mildly influenced
by the last stages of basin inversion. The second interval is defined by
channel-form reflections within the uppermost Arang Formation and
parallel-horizontal reflections in the basal part of the Muda Formation.
The third interval includes channel-form reflections in the upper part of
the Muda Formation and overlying parallel-horizontal reflections that
directly underlie the modern sea floor. Each of these intervals are
interpreted to be third-order stratigraphic sequences (i.e., have durations
of a few million years). Their boundaries, however, do not necessarily
record an abrupt coarsening across a single discrete allostratigraphic
surface (in contrast to the definition of Van Wagoner et al. 1987), but
rather appear to be characterized by a gradual upward change in facies
across a succession of smaller-scale internal unconformity-bounded
intervals. This study focuses on smaller-scale vertical variations within
the youngest of these third-order stratigraphic intervals.
METHODS
A 3D seismic-reflection survey acquired in 2001 by Conoco Indonesia
across the 17 km by 40 km area of Belida field has in-line spacing of 25 m
and cross-line spacing of 12.5 m. Because most wells in Belida field
include information only from deeper stratigraphic levels where
petroleum reservoirs are located (i.e., Eocene to upper Miocene strata),
the thickness of Muda deposits was estimated by a comparison of vertical
seismic variations to velocity logs that extend through the shallow part of
four wells in Belida field. Given the relatively shallow depth of the Muda
Formation, average seismic velocity is estimated to be 1650 meters per
second. The highest frequencies recorded in the seismic data are nearly
100 Hz (dominant frequencies ranged from 50 to 60 Hz), potentially
allowing stratal features less than 10 m thick to be resolved. Seismic
mapping was accomplished using combined in-line and cross-line vertical
seismic sections and horizontal time slices of successive 4 ms twtt
(milliseconds two-way travel time) thick horizons.
Seismic root-mean-squared amplitude variations were used to interpret
depositional features and geomorphologic patterns in time slices.
Interpretation of stratigraphic trends defined by vertical changes of the
fluvial architecture was a challenge because channel deposits of different
size and incision depth that are cut down from a variety of horizons are
superimposed within individual seismic slices. By scrolling through
successive horizontal time slices and vertical seismic cross sections
simultaneously, individual channel-form reflections were assigned to the
stratigraphic horizon from which they incised. Although many channel
bodies where so highly fragmented by incision of subsequent channels
that it was difficult to define their dimensions, where bodies were more
complete, their width, depth, and sinuosity were recorded relative to their
incision horizon. Planview maps of these more complete channels were
compiled for successive stratigraphic intervals to show vertical changes in
channel size, direction, and fluvial style.
Seismic Variations within the Upper Muda Formation
A seismic section of the upper 500 ms twtt interval of Belida field
(Fig. 3) shows the location and cross-sectional geometry of channels in
the upper part of the Muda Formation. This seismic cross section extends
from a high-amplitude, laterally continuous horizontal reflection in the
Muda Formation at 430 ms twtt upward to the modern sea floor at 56 ms
twtt, this represents a thickness of about 225 m. Channels imaged within
this interval become more abundant and on average larger upsection.
JSR
Larger channels appear to cut downward preferentially from particular
horizons, an observation that was used to subdivide this interval into
a succession of thinner sequences. Boundaries of these thinner sequences
were defined by tracing particular reflections across the seismic volume
that marks the base of clusters of more deeply incised channels. Although
each sequence boundary is defined by a reflection that is continuous
across the seismic volume, the basal surface of the oldest sequence
(Sequence Boundary 1 or SB 1) is less clearly an allostratigraphic surface
(versus a clustering of channel deposits cut down from slightly different
horizons) than those that define the four younger sequences. The
youngest two sequences (above SB 4 and SB 5) are complexly nested
within the same interval, and the boundary separating these sequences
(SB 5) could be defined only locally because the associated interfluves
merge within seismic resolution with those of SB4. Individual sequences
are 50 to 100 ms twtt (about 30–60 m) thick and are interpreted to
represent deposition over about 0.5 Myr on the basis of simple
interpolation of the estimated age range of the entire Muda Formation.
Amplitude variations across representative horizontal seismic time slices
through this interval (Fig. 4) are discussed in detail below. Because
channels incised from different sequences are commonly superimposed
within horizontal time slices, maps of channel bodies incised from
a specific stratigraphic interval are presented for a similar set of intervals
as shown in each of the presented seismic slices (Fig. 5).
Below Sequence 1
Reflections in the basal part of the seismic cross section (Fig. 3;
between 500 and 400 ms twtt) are laterally continuous and subhorizontal.
Lateral variations in amplitude observed in horizontal seismic time slices
through this interval are broad and gradual over 5 to 10 km. Above
400 ms twtt, sparse small channels are defined by high-amplitude
reflections, each less than 100 meters wide, 10–20 ms twtt (, 6–12 m)
deep, and about 2 km in channel-bend wavelength (Fig. 4A). These
channels are generally oriented southwest–northeast and are locally
highly sinuous (i.e., ratio of channel-centerline to straight-line distance of
2.5–3.5). Bar accretion deposits, visible on the insides of some channel-
bend segments, indicate migration dominated by expansion. The few
channel bends with asymmetric accretion patterns (Figs. 4A, 5A) suggest
paleoflow to the northeast. Although interchannel amplitude variations
are more variable upsection, they remain gradual over a few kilometers
and locally appear to be lobate in planview (Fig. 4A). Two larger
channels defined by low-amplitude reflections, on the order of a kilometer
wide and nearly 45 ms (, 25 m) deep, cut down from horizons just below
Sequence Boundary 1 (400–430 ms twtt). These larger channels are nearly
symmetrical in cross section, have low sinuosity, and lack evidence of
bank accretion deposits. Smaller, higher-sinuosity channels, like those
lower within this interval, are also observed.
Sequence 1
Sequence 1 (generally between 350 to 250 ms twtt; on average about
60 m thick) is underlain by Sequence Boundary 1. Basal deposits are low-
to moderate-sinuosity channel deposits up to 2 kilometers wide and
50 ms twtt (, 30 m) deep (Figs. 3, 4B). The sequence boundary is
defined by laterally mapping a reflection cut by the most deeply incised of
these channels through the entire seismic volume (Fig. 6A). Although this
boundary delineates an interval along which larger channels are
concentrated (Fig. 3), it cannot be claimed conclusively that it represents
a higher-order allostratigraphic surface relative to those that extend
laterally away from similar-scale channels found slightly lower and higher
within the stratigraphy. The channel used to define this sequence
boundary shallows and thins toward the northeast (Fig. 6A), a direction
that can be inferred to be downstream on the bases of accretion deposits
in adjacent channels.
JSR MUDA FORMATION THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLUVIAL ARCHITECTURE 229

FIG. 3.—A) Uninterpreted and B) interpreted seismic cross section of the upper Muda Formation (upper 500 ms twtt). See inset map in Figure 1 for location of cross
section. Interpretations are based on examination of this and adjacent cross sections and horizontal time slices spaced each 4 ms twtt upward within the seismic volume.

Upward into the middle of this sequence, large channels gradually
become more sinuous (Figs. 4B, 5B) and smaller channels become more
abundant (cf. Fig. 5B). The larger channels are about 1.5 km wide and
35 ms twtt (, 20 m) deep, and have wavelengths averaging 5 km. In time
slices, amplitude variations between channels are pronounced and
complex, changing laterally over a few kilometers. Although in several
locations, small channels appear to pass laterally into more diffuse
kilometer-wide lobate zones defined by higher-amplitude variations, the
complex distribution and limited resolution of small channel segments
makes it difficult to demonstrate this link conclusively. Channels in the
230 B.J. WILLIS ET AL. JSR

FIG. 4.—Selected horizontal time slices showing the distribution and geometry of seismic-amplitude variations in different horizons of the upper Muda Formation at
Belida Field. A) Horizon below Sequence Boundary 1 shows small meandering channels (arrows point to a few specific examples) that cross an area characterized by
broad, gradual amplitude variations. B) Larger channels with moderate to high sinuosity dominate horizons in the middle interval of Sequence 1 (arrows point to two
examples). C) Channels with widely varying dimensions observed in the upper interval of Sequence 1. The largest channels have fairly straight, south–north orientation
(arrows point to two examples). D) Horizon near the top of the incision fill above Sequence Boundary 2 (area of deepest underlying incision is marked by the dashed line
(i). Areas adjacent to this incision show local dendritic gully formation (arrow ii). E) Large channel with well imaged bar accretionary deposits accumulated in the area of
deepest incision along Sequence Boundary 3 (arrow i). The very base of Sequence Boundary 4 incision also intersects this time slice (arrow ii). Small channels that cut
downward from within the upper part of Sequence 2 (arrow iii) vary in sinuosity and pattern. Larger channels that cut down from the upper part of Sequence 3 are all
fairly straight (arrow iv). F) Time slice intersecting the upper part of the basal channel along Sequence Boundary 3 (arrow i) shows gully formation into adjacent
floodplain areas (arrow ii). Straighter large channels in the upper part of Sequence 3 also penetrate this horizon (arrow iii). Inner-bank bar accretion in the basal channel
of Sequence 4 is also observed (arrow iv). G) Incised channels cut down from Sequences 4 and 5 into nearly the same interval. The largest channels incised from both
sequences contain well imaged inner-bank bar accretion deposits (arrow i points to bar in a Sequence 4 channel, and arrow ii points to bar in a Sequence 5 channel).
Narrower channels with adjacent dendritic gullies cut down from Sequence 4. Straighter channels without adjacent dendritic gullies cut down from higher intervals within
Sequence 4. H) Channels with adjacent dendritic gullies (i) decrease in abundance and average size and increase in sinuosity from northwest to southeast in the upper part
of Sequences 4 and 5. A smaller sinuous channel in the upper part of Sequence 5 (ii) has adjacent dendritic gullies that overlie deposits of Sequence 4.
JSR MUDA FORMATION THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLUVIAL ARCHITECTURE
upper part of Sequence 1 are uniformly smaller (less than a kilometer
wide and 10 ms twtt deep) and have low sinuosity (Figs. 3, 4C, 5C). On
average they are more uniformly south-to-north oriented than those
lower in the sequence. Interchannel amplitude variations in time slices
also are more subdued than those below Sequence Boundary 1.
Sequence 2
Sequence 2 (generally between 250 to 170 ms twtt; on average about
50 m thick) is defined at its base by a reflection with nearly 90 ms twtt
(, 55 m) of relief (Fig. 6B). The dominant incision along this sequence
boundary is a nearly two kilometers wide, 60 ms twtt (, 40 m) deep,
north–south oriented, straight channel. Reflections in this channel are
initially concordant with its base, and then they successively become more
horizontal. Several smaller channels that also cut into this basal surface
(Figs. 4D, 5D) are generally parallel to the larger channel, and together
define a nearly 10-km-wide incision trend (Fig. 6B). In one location, small
dendritic gullies expand over a few kilometers onto the adjacent interfluve
adjacent to this incised trend (Fig. 4D).
Above the interval of incision, isolated larger channels (kilometers
wide) have a fairly straight north–south orientation. In the upper part of
this sequence narrower channels have progressively more west-to-east
trends and have more variable planform geometry, ranging from higher
sinuosity to straighter segments with downstream branching or anasto-
mosing geometries (Fig. 4E, F). Smaller channels are defined by
contrasting amplitude variations (i.e., some have higher amplitudes and
others lower amplitudes than surrounding deposits). The complex
distribution of smaller channel segments, many of which are near the
limit of seismic resolution, makes it difficult to define patterns of
amplitude variation within strata between channel bodies.
Sequence 3
Sequence 3 (generally between 170 to 120 ms twtt, on average about
30 m thick) is defined at its base by a sequence boundary with slightly
over 50 ms twtt (, 30 m) of relief (Fig. 5C). The stratigraphically lowest
parts of this sequence boundary define a sinuous, west–east incised trend,
in contrast to the south–north trend of incisions that characterize
underlying sequence boundaries. A large sinuous channel with well-
imaged bar accretion deposits is found in the deepest part of the main
incision along Sequence Boundary 3 (Fig. 4E, F). The extent of these
accretion surfaces and adjacent channel fill in cross section (Fig. 3), and
planview extent of bar accretion sets, indicate that this channel was nearly
2 kilometers wide and 40 ms twtt (, 25 m) deep, and had a wavelength
of about 5–8 kilometers. Accretion sets extend more that four times the
width of the adjacent channel fill, which has a sinuosity of about 3.
Several similarly large channels, with more modest sinuosity, incise from
slightly higher stratigraphic levels into Sequence Boundary 3.
Time slices that cut through less incised areas along Sequence
Boundary 3 show well developed dendritic gullies expanding several
kilometers away from the most deeply incised areas (Figs. 4F, 5F).
Channels in Sequence 3, incised downward from above the horizon cut by
gullies, are less than a kilometer wide and 20 ms twtt (, 12 m) deep, and
have low sinuosity (Fig. 4F, G). Amplitude variations along these
channel bodies suggest bar wavelengths of about 5 km, similar to those
in the high-sinuosity channel at the base of Sequence 3 (Fig. 5F).
Sequences 4 and 5
Sequences 4 and 5 (generally between 120 to 80 ms twtt, on average
about 25 m thick) are nested within nearly the same interval, and thus
their deposits are difficult to differentiate. The combined erosion surface
at the base of these sequences has about 75 ms twtt (, 50 m) of relief.
Both sequence boundaries rise locally to a distinctive horizon with
231
extensive dendritic gullies, some extending away from adjacent channels
onto interfluves over distances greater than 10 km. The distinction
between these two sequences is that gullies associated with incision of SB
5 locally erode into the tops of channels in Sequence 4. In contrast,
channels of Sequence 5 have gullies along their margins, but these gullies
do not extend across the main axes of these channel deposits.
The basal deposit of Sequence 4 is a moderately sinuous channel with
well imaged inner-bend bar accretion deposits (Figs. 4G, 5H). This
channel is 3 km wide and nearly 70 ms twtt (50 m) deep, and has a bend
wavelength of 14 km. Asymmetry of accretion deposits in planview
suggests flow from northwest to southeast (Figs. 4 and 5, F and G). Other
large channel deposits that are cut into this interval are narrower,
straighter, a bit thinner (about 1 km wide and 30 ms twtt deep), and lack
obvious adjacent bar accretion deposits. Amplitude variations along one
of these straighter channels suggest that channel bars are about 3 km in
length (Fig. 4G). Crosscutting relationships suggest that these straighter
channels are younger in age than the large channel that floors the
sequence, even though they cut downward from nearly the same horizon.
The basal channel of Sequence 5, incised from nearly the same interval as
those in Sequence 4, has low sinuosity and bars with well imaged
accretion surfaces that suggest dominantly downstream migration from
west to east (Figs. 4G, 5G). There are distinct gullies along the margin of
this channel and along a narrower adjacent channel that crosses above the
path of the largest channel in Sequence 4.
Above the gullied surfaces of Sequences 4 and 5, channel segments with
varying size and sinuosity are generally discontinuous across horizontal
time slices. There is a decrease in channel size and abundance from west
to east across the study area. Strata are poorly imaged above this interval
because of the strength of the reflection from the modern ocean floor.
Interpretation of Depositional Patterns
The upper interval of the Muda Formation comprises an overall
progradational fluvial–deltaic succession formed on a broad, low-
gradient platform under conditions of relatively slow subsidence.
Horizontal reflections near the base of the study interval (Figs. 2, 3;
400 to 700 ms twtt) image marine strata deposited during transgression
across the interval of fluvial channels in the lower Muda Formation
(Fig. 2, from 700 to 900 ms twtt). The particularly high-amplitude
reflection at about 430 ms twtt may be a maximum flooding surface.
Gradual amplitude variations across horizontal time slices reflect broad
lithologic variations within these marine deposits. Minor crenulations
along these generally horizontal reflections are aligned through many
successive horizons and probably record deformation around gas pipes
through unconsolidated sediments. Small, high-sinuosity channels that
are imaged at about 400 ms twtt, and that are joined by larger, straighter
channels in horizons stratigraphically a bit higher, may reflect prograda-
tion of a distributive (delta top) fluvial system. Diffuse amplitude
variations observed in time slices in areas between these channel bodies
are broadly lobate, and may record lithologic variations across adjacent
mouth-bar or interdistributary-bay deposits.
The wide variety of channel sizes in the overlying sequences suggests
the presence of rivers that carried very different discharge. The largest
channels (kilometers wide and 25–50 m thick) are inferred to be deposits
of major trunk rivers, whereas smaller channels of variable size and
planview geometry are inferred to be tributaries or floodplain drainage
channels. Reflection geometries that define bar accretion deposits and
channel fills within the largest channels (e.g., Fig. 7) suggest that they had
a channel-forming cross-sectional area of about 60,000 m2. Although
accurate estimates of channel-forming discharge require information on
vertical trends in grain size within these channel deposits (which is not
available), broadly constrained estimates based on assuming a mean grain
size of fine sand suggest mean flow rates of about 0.6 m/s and thus
232 B.J. WILLIS ET AL. JSR
JSR MUDA FORMATION THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLUVIAL ARCHITECTURE 233

a channel-forming discharge of about 35,000 to 40,000 m3/s (see methods
in Willis 1993a). This suggests that the largest channel deposits imaged in
the study area were formed by rivers with discharge nearly as great as
average floods of the modern Mekong River.
Vertical clusters of large channels along particular stratigraphic
intervals, used to define the bases of sequences, are interpreted to record
periods of lower accumulation rate relative to avulsion rate of the trunk
river (following standard sequence stratigraphic models for fluvial deposits;
Bridge and Leeder 1979; Shanley and McCabe 1993; Wright and Marriott
1993). Intervals higher within sequences, with fewer and generally smaller
channel deposits, are interpreted to record periods of more rapid
aggradation that led to increased preservation of tributary channels and
floodplain deposits. The standard interpretation of these types of vertical
variations is that channel incisions are related to sea-level falls, and
subsequent periods of floodplain aggradation are related to increasing
accommodation during sea-level rise. An alternative is that for fluvial
systems that decrease in slope onto a consistently low-gradient shelf, a fall
in sea level leads to fluvial floodplain aggradation as the river system
adjusts to greater distances to the regressing coastline (Summerfield 1985;
Posamentier et al. 1992; Holbrook et al. 2006). Clusters of channels along
the base of sequences separating episodes of floodplain aggradation could
then be interpreted to record more gradual erosion associated with bypass
of sediment basinward during continued sea-level fall and lowstand, rather
than knickpoint erosion landward. In either case, interpretations of
a regional control on sequence development in this succession need to be
viewed with some caution, because there likely were multiple river systems
traversing the study area and the region spanned by the seismic volume is
probably significantly smaller than the floodplain width across which the
main trunk river avulsed. Thus, it is possible that observed vertical
variations in fluvial architecture may also reflect longer-term lateral shifts
in the position of the trunk river or temporal changes in its floodplain width
related to adjustments of adjacent rivers and varying aggradation rate of
their associated floodplains.
Tributaries cut into the floodplain adjacent to the larger trunk rivers, as
defined by distinctive dendritic gully systems observed in time slices, are
the best evidence for incision of the trunk river into the floodplain. These
features indicate the formation of valleys with adjacent interfluves
(Posamentier 2001). Such gullies are not expected to form adjacent to
non-incised river channels, because their growth to scales visible in
seismic slices is inhibited by overbank deposition during periodic river
floods. In this study area gullies are observed to downcut only from
sequence boundaries.
In the study interval, there are increases in the abundance and extent of
gully formation along successive sequence boundaries. No evidence of gully
formation was observed cut into Sequence Boundary 1. Evidence of areally
restricted gullies is observed very locally along the most deeply incised
channel along Sequence Boundary 2. Evidence of nearly continuous gully
formation, extending a few kilometers onto adjacent interfluves, is
observed along the most deeply incised channels of Sequence 3. The best
imaged and most extensive gullies extend broadly over many kilometers
across the amalgamated interfluves of Sequence Boundaries 4 and 5. More
extensive gully systems are interpreted to record longer periods of trunk-
river incision during the formation of successive sequence boundaries, and
perhaps also greater river incision depth.
Progressive decrease in mean sequence thickness and increase in gully
formation along successive sequence boundaries suggests that the upper
interval of the Muda Formation comprises a forward-stepping sequence
set. That is, the formation of successive sequence boundaries is inferred to
be associated with longer-term bypass of sediment, longer-term loss of
accommodation, and possible regression of shorelines farther basinward.
The poorly imaged channels in the uppermost part of this sequence set
(upper interval of Sequence 5; Fig. 4H) may indicate that channel-fill
lithologies became more similar to adjacent floodplain deposits during
initial transgression. Deposits that cap Sequence 5 are thin (comprising at
most the upper 40–60 ms twtt of sediment), and probably formed during
continued marine transgression of this prograding sequence set. The
specific horizon that records marine transgression is poorly imaged due to
the strength of the sea-floor reflection.
There are systematic changes in channel size and pattern upward within
each sequence (Fig. 7). The size of channels generally decreases upward
within each sequence. Although the deepest channels cut into sequence
boundaries clearly record incision greater than associated channel flow
depths (values greater than about 40 m), the thickness of bar accretion
deposits along inner banks of large channel bends suggest that 20–40 m
deep channels were common. Maximum relief along sequence boundaries
is thus only slightly greater than the thickness of accretion sets associated
with the largest individual channels, indicating that total depths of valley
incision were not much greater than the depths of the associated river
channels. Decrease in mean channel size upward within sequences reflects
different dimensions of incised and overlying unincised major channels
and also preservation of smaller tributary and floodplain channels.
Sequence boundaries with better defined incision (i.e., Sequence
Boundaries 3–5) are overlain by higher sinuosity channels with more
obvious bar accretion deposits, and channels that incise from horizons
stratigraphically higher in these sequences are generally straighter. This
observation is contrary to the general assumption that steeper stream
gradients along the axis of an incised valley lead to straighter braided
channel patterns, and that channels become more sinuous as slopes
decline during transgressive valley filling (Wright and Marriott 1993).
Near the center of the broad exposed Sunda shelf stream gradients may
have been uniformly very low during Muda deposition. Thus, more
sinuous major channels may record slopes steepened by incision and the
straighter, lower-sinuosity channels that show no evidence of lateral
migration may have flowed across lower gradients (Fig. 8). Upward
change in the sinuosity of larger channels from the base of Sequence 1 to
those that incise downward from the middle of this sequence may indicate
that the deepest channel in this non-incised sequence did not flow down
the steepest gradients. Given that the sinuous channels at the bases of the
most deeply incised sequences are also the largest (as indicated by the
scale of inner-bank accretion deposits), it may alternatively be that
channels with greater discharge had greater stream power relative to
sediment load. In this case, their sinuous planform (relative to the ‘‘large’’
channels higher in the same sequence) may reflect an increased ability of
these channels to erode their banks during high discharge, rather than

FIG. 5.— Map-view traces of channels compiled by combining observations from several successive time slices through the upper Muda Formation at Belida Field.
Although mapped intervals of channels correspond in a general way to seismic slices shown in correspondingly labeled parts of Figure 4, the seismic slices are complicated
by channels that incise downward from intervals higher in the stratigraphy. A) Channels that incise downward from the interval below Sequence Boundary 1, between 412
to 368 ms twtt. B) Channels that incise downward from the basal and middle intervals of Sequence 1, between 354 and 310 ms twtt. C) Channels that incise downward
from the upper interval of Sequence 1, between 306 and 278 ms twtt. D) Channels that incise downward from the basal interval of Sequence 2, between 278 and 250 ms
twtt. E) Channels that incise downward from the upper interval of Sequence 2 and the most deeply incised deposits of Sequence 3, between 214 and 190 ms twtt. F)
Channels that incise downward from the upper interval of Sequence 3 and most deeply incised deposits of Sequence 4, between 180 and 160 ms twtt. G) Channels that
incise downward from the uppermost interval of sequence 3, in sequence 4, and the lowermost interval of Sequence 5. H) Channels that incise downward from the
uppermost intervals of Sequence 4 , between 134–114 ms twtt.
234 B.J. WILLIS ET AL. JSR

reflecting temporal changes in downstream gradients. The sinuosity of

smaller channels probably reflects more local stream gradients and
sediment loads, which could have been influenced by local floodplain
depositional features (e.g., levees and crevasse splays adjacent to the
larger channels). Thus, smaller channels are less likely to reflect regional
stratigraphic trends. For example, some small sinuous rivers along
Sequence Boundary 5 appear to change downstream into straighter
incised gullies (Fig. 4G).

Origin of Sequences
The origin of sequences in the upper interval of the Muda Formation is
difficult to constrain from the limited area of this study. Posamentier
(2001) suggested fluvial incision can occur due to: (1) sea-level fall across
a region with steepening downstream gradients, for example across an
exposed shoreface or the continental shelf edge; (2) erosion of channels
across areas of tectonic uplift; and (3) climatic variations in river
discharge that leave underfit river deposits along the courses of larger-
discharge channels. Although none of these mechanisms can be ruled out
definitively based on the data available from Belida field, they can be
assessed based on observed variations within sequences and the broader
depositional setting.
The Muda Formation at Belida field is located in middle parts of
regional drainage systems that extended across much of the Sunda shelf
during Pliocene to Holocene sea-level lowstands (Fig. 1; Murray 2003;
Murray and Dorobek 2004). Regional seismic profiles extending eastward
across all of the West Natuna Basin and parts of the adjacent East
Natuna and Nam Con Son basins show that the Muda Formation (and
its lateral stratigraphic equivalents) vary little in thickness across the
nearly 1000 km distance to the present-day Sunda shelf edge (Dorobek,
unpublished). Sediment aggradation across the Sunda shelf thus appears
to have been broadly laterally consistent during Pliocene to Recent time.
This observation, and the repetitive nature of fluvial variations that
define sequences in the upper Muda Formation, argues against local
tectonic controls on fluvial aggradation and erosion rates.
Posamentier (2001) suggested that rivers crossing a low-gradient,
lowstand-exposed shelf are likely to remain non-incised over large areas
when sea-level fall is not extensive enough to expose the shelf edge. To the
extent that this is true, a sea-level control on upper Muda Formation
sequences would require that large regions of the Sunda shelf, perhaps
distances of 1000 km or more, responded essentially synchronously to
sea-level changes. Variations in the incision of interfluves observed on
successive sequence boundaries would then also suggest that gully
formation occurs very slowly relative to rates that trunk rivers incise
shelf-edge knickpoints landward across the shelf. Similarly, fluvial
aggradation rates and channel behavior also would be required to
respond very rapidly across broad regions to downstream-gradient
declines as the shelf was episodically flooded. There is little evidence for
such extensive and rapid response of fluvial systems to high-frequency
sea-level variations, in as much as stream gradient changes required to
adjust river profiles at distances of many hundreds of kilometers from the
shelf edge would be negligible. Burns et al. (1997) suggest that effects of
sea-level changes on river gradients should be only a few ‘‘backwater
lengths’’ (river depth divided by downstream slope), a distance that
should not exceed a few hundred kilometers, even considering the
probable low gradients of the exposed Sunda shelf.

FIG. 6.—Topographic maps of sequence boundaries defined by tracing specific

reflections through the seismic volume of the upper Muda Formation at
Belida Field.
JSR MUDA FORMATION THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLUVIAL ARCHITECTURE
FIG. 7.— Close-up view of largest channel incised into Sequence Boundary 4, in horizontal time slice and cross section.
An alternative mechanism for sea-level control on sequence formation
in the upper Muda Formation is that fluvial incision across a succession
of falling-stage shorelines on the shelf formed during episodic short-term
regressions and transgressions. This is supported by the modest depths of
incision along sequence boundaries relative to sizes of the largest internal
channel deposits (less than two to one). Given expected low shelf
gradients, this model would still require significant regressions and
transgressions to allow the accumulation of shoreline deposits that are
thick enough to produce adequate fluvial incision, followed by very rapid
landward expansion of incised valleys cut into falling-stage shorelines
located basinward. Support for this idea would require identification of
coeval Muda Formation shoreline deposits basinward of Belida field.
Given evidence that this sequence set is dominantly regressive, it might be
expected from this model that younger sequences would be less deeply
incised as successive delta-front knickpoints shifted farther basinward
onto the shallow shelf. This supposition is not supported by observations
from this example.
Although climate controls on river discharge are difficult to constrain
from our available data, they would be expected given the icehouse
conditions of the Pliocene to Recent and low-latitude setting of the study
area. Climatically modulated changes in river discharge could affect river
channel size, sediment transport capacity, and patterns of erosion and
deposition over large areas of these drainage basins. Large changes in
river discharge during the Holocene caused by changes in monsoonal
235
precipitation patterns have been reported to occur in rivers that drain into
the Himalayan foredeep, as recorded by incision of floodplains extending
across alluvial fans of the Ganges plains to low-lying areas on the top of
the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta (Goodbred 2003; Gibling et al. 2005).
Whereas incision and changes in river pattern are expected to attenuate
landward away from shelf-edge knickpoints exposed during sea-level
falls, effects of variations in river channel discharge caused by climatic
changes are more likely to influence the entire drainage basin. Bogart and
van Balen (2000) speculated that river incision may reflect lags between
increases in river water discharge and associated increases in sediment
supply. The observation of more sinuous channels with better developed
bank accretion deposits along the most deeply incised areas of sequence
boundaries may support this supposition, in as much as it suggests that
incised rivers would have more stream power to erode their banks.
Similarly, decrease in the size of the largest channels upward within
sequences may indicate declining river discharge relative to sediment
loads, rather than a backfilling of incised drainages due to declining
gradients caused by sea-level rise.
DISCUSSION
Although sequence stratigraphic concepts have been widely applied to
fluvial successions, most well constrained examples are from deposits
formed near the coast, where fluvial deposition can be related fairly
FIG. 8.— Dimensions and sinuosity of chan-
nel-form reflections shown relative to the strati-
graphic horizon from which they originated. The
sea-level curve of Haq et al. (1987) is shown on
the right.
236 B.J. WILLIS ET AL.
FIG. 9.— Relationship between slope and channel sinuosity defined by flume
experiments of Schumm and Khan (1972).
directly to stacking patterns in shallow marine deposits and shoreline
regression–transgression trends. For example, where fluvial channels are
incised into regressive shoreface deposits, fluvial incisions are partially
filled with transgressive estuarine facies and the succession is capped by
a marine flooding surface (summaries in Shanley and McCabe 1993;
Zaitlin et al. 1994; Blum and Törnqvist 2000). For these examples
knickpoint erosion into a delta front edge exposed during sea level fall is
assumed to have a major influence on valley development.
For successions deposited farther inland, sequence divisions are
generally defined based on vertical variations in the proportion of
channel to overbank deposits, and less commonly by recognizing laterally
continuous erosion surfaces, abrupt changes in sandstone petrography, or
intervals with mature paleosols (e.g., Aitken and Flint 1995; Legarreta
and Uliana 1988; Miall and Arush 2001; McCarthy and Plint 1998).
These interpretations tend to be more conjectural, however, because the
influence of sea level fluctuations are expected to attenuate landward and
thus, other allostratigraphic mechanisms that can control variations in
alluvial architecture become increasingly probable explanations for
observed variations. Increasing channel sandstone proportion is not
always associated with declining aggradation rate as predicted by sea-
level-driven alluvial sequence stratigraphic models (e.g., Read and Dean
1985; Willis 1993b; and discussion of hypothetical cases in Heller and
Paola 1996), and several authors have suggested that in many cases fluvial
channels aggrade or simply extend basinward following sea level falls
rather than incising (Miall 1991; Posamentier 2001).
Given the prevalence of erosion surfaces of varying depth within fluvial
deposits, evidence for valley incision from outcrop exposures is generally
based on recognizing extensive erosion surfaces with relief significantly
greater than the thickness of individual channel bar accretion sets and
adjacent channel fills. In this paper we follow Posamentier (2001) in
suggesting that distinctive dendritic gullies adjacent to channel margins
observed in horizontal time slices of 3D seismic volumes are adequate
evidence to demonstrate that a river channel was incised into its
floodplain, despite basal erosion surfaces with nearly the same relief as
the thickness of adjacent point-bar deposits. The occurrence of similar
lowstand bypass channels of the Burdekin River across the low-gradient
shelf of northeastern Australia led Fielding et al. (2003, 2005) to propose
a distinction between ‘‘entrenched’’ channels and ‘‘incised’’ valley
deposits. Although entrenched channels have not been recognized in
outcrop, this may reflect a lack of observation rather than the absence of
these features. For example, in the Siwaliks of Pakistan the second author
of this paper observed multi-storied sandstone bodies that terminated at
cutbank margins against overbank successions that lacked levee deposits,
but he failed to walk out the surface correlative with the terminating basal
erosion surface of the channel sandstone body into the adjacent overbank
deposits to look carefully for evidence of gully formation.
JSR
Posamentier (2001) distinguished non-incised and incised lowstand
channels using seismic cross sections similar to those presented here, and
suggested that, although both types of channel bodies were deposited
during an overall fall in sea level, incised channels likely form only when
the sea level falls below the antecedent shelf edge. The channels he
discussed, in the southern Java Sea, were interpreted to record fluvial
channels and valleys cut directly into shelf deposits (i.e., regressions were
so rapid that prograding shallow marine deposits were not preserved).
The deposits imaged in this study are somewhat different, in as much as
several hundred meters of net aggradation occurred during deposition of
these sequences, basal deposits of this succession appear to be deltaic, and
the overall succession is interpreted to be progradational. Channels in this
system episodically aggraded and then incised. The occurrence of deposits
formed by very large rivers suggests that regional drainages were free to
avulse over wide areas of the Sunda shelf between episodic incisions,
because it is unlikely that deposits of this large river are restricted by
chance to the small area covered by this study. In this setting, distinction
between non-incised, entrenched, and incised valley channel bodies is
more tenuous, and depends critically on the resolution in the seismic
image of features like bar accretion surfaces and interfluve gullies. There
may be a complete gradation between these types.
Where lowstand incision is not pronounced, as in this case, it becomes
difficult to distinguish channel incisions caused by climatically controlled
discharge variations, very subtle floodplain deformation, and landward
knickpoint erosion following sea-level falls. Channel incisions initiated by
these different mechanisms are unlikely to be regionally synchronous.
Given that gully incisions appear to extend only short lateral distances
away from the entrenched channels (order of kilometers to a few tens of
kilometers), it is not clear that the sequences defined here are of regional
extent. Episodic entrenchment and river avulsion during intervening
periods of floodplain aggradation may leave a series of laterally
discontinuous falling-stage erosion surfaces rather than a single regional
allostratigraphic sequence boundary. Similarly, incisions into the shelf
edge caused by knickpoint erosion following a sea-level fall may be
regionally discontinuous, where river courses in areas upstream remain
non-incised and continue to avulse over time (Leeder and Stewart 1996;
Törnqvist et al. 2003).
Alluvial architecture models used to calculate subsurface channel
sandstone connectivity generally assume a stationary distribution of
channel bodies, on the basis of the underlying idea that floodplain
aggradation is dominated by levee growth adjacent to major channels,
which expand at uniform rates to trigger a statistically constant
distribution of river channel avulsions through time (Leeder 1978; Allen
1978; Bridge and Leeder 1979). In this subsurface example, the largest
channels are incised and aggradational intervals appear to be dominated
by fluvial systems with smaller channels. Although the scale of the study
area and seismic resolution of floodplain depositional elements may not
be adequate to define alluvial ridges adjacent to the major channels, an
abundance of smaller channel systems within intervals that separate
major channel bodies agrees with models that predict floodplain
aggradation dominantly occurs during avulsion events (Smith et al.
1989) rather than the growth of extensive alluvial ridges. Miall (2006) also
noted that the wide variety of channel sizes and fluvial styles imaged in
3D seismic data of the Pleistocene Pilong Formation (offshore Malaysia)
suggests pronounced changes in channel-body dimensions and perhaps
deposits of multiple river systems. This degree of complexity is not
currently addressed in alluvial architecture models. High-frequency
episodes of channel entrenchment and aggradation, as observed in this
study, are also likely to increase horizontal relative to vertical channel
deposit connectively, compared to predictions for systems with equal
channel sandstone proportion formed under more uniformly aggrading
conditions and a stationary distribution of channel avulsions. Alluvial
architecture models that can incorporate sequence stratigraphic trends
JSR MUDA FORMATION THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLUVIAL ARCHITECTURE
also require better understanding of extrabasinal influences on patterns of
fluvial deposition. In summary, the next generation of alluvial sequence
stratigraphic models will likely require detailed 3D seismic images of
a broader range of fluvial depositional systems as well as well-constrained
data on contemporaneous eustatic fluctuations and regional differential
subsidence patterns.
CONCLUSIONS
The upper Muda Formation at Belida Field in the West Natuna Basin
is a 225-meter-thick, progradational sequence set that coarsens upward
from marine shelf and deltaic deposits to fluvial deposits. These deposits
are capped by modern marine deposits of the Sunda shelf. Five fluvial
sequences, each of which is tens of meters thick, are defined by the
clustering of channels along specific horizons that are separated by
intervals with fewer channel deposits. Sequence boundaries are generally
marked by erosion greater than the thickness of bar accretion deposits
adjacent to individual channels; gully formation on interfluves also
characterizes sequence boundaries. Deeper erosion and greater extent of
gully formation on successive sequence boundaries suggests greater long-
term loss in accommodation and greater bypass of sediment through
time. Major channels in basal parts of the better developed sequences
(Sequences 3 through 5) are larger and more sinuous, and show greater
preservation of bar accretion deposits than channels higher in these
sequences. These vertical changes may indicate that sequence-boundary
incision was associated with climatic changes in river discharge, rather
than changes in river gradient associated with sea-level fluctuations. The
architecture of fluvial deltaic sequences deposited on a low-gradient
continental shelf differs from better documented highstand examples
because sea-level fall can lead to fluvial aggradation and fluvial channels
may not become deeply incised. Current sequence stratigraphic models
for fluvial deposits fail to address the variety of possible controls on
alluvial architecture and the range of possible responses of fluvial systems
to changing allocyclic controls.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by a scholarship to the first author from the
Educational Consortium of the Coordinating Board of Oil and Gas of
Indonesia. Chuck Caughey of ConocoPhillips was especially supportive. We
also thank the Belida Group of ConocoPhillips Indonesia in Jakarta,
including Rahadian Adhyaksawan, Sugiharto Danudjaja, Paulus Hamid,
Fadia Hamid, and Redo Waworuntu for help in acquisition of these data.
Roald Brotherton and Vaughn Ball are thanked for permission to publish.
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Received 11 December 2005; accepted 30 September 2006.