Depositional Environments of Sandstones

● Wave, Tidal, and

Storm Processes
● Fluvial Processes

Unidirectional Currents
●

● Oscillatory Currents

● Sediment Gravity Processes

Sandstone Depositional Systems

Fluvial system
Coastal system
Shelf system

Deep-water system
 Heterogeneity of Sandstones
Recovery efficiency is controlled by the degree of
complexity of 3D heterogeneity

Dimension visible to
naked eyes

Physical bounding surfaces

compartmentalize the reservoirs
3-Dimensional Heterogeneity

3-D variations in
Porosity and Permeability
 Sandstone Geometry

● Log patters cannot necessarily predict depositional environments.

● 3-D lithofacies successions are crucial for better understanding of
depositional environments and geometry of sandstones.
 Controlling Factors

Climate

Tectonics
Sea level change
 Sediment Yields

Increase in vegetation protection

Precipitation and vegetation control annual sediment yields

 Annual Discharge of
Suspended Sediments

3 3

1
2

×106
 Questions
(1) Why is more sediment discharged into the Atlantic
Ocean from Brazil than is discharged into the
Pacific Ocean from Ecuador and Peru, even though
extensive weathering occurs along the Andean
Cordillera?

(2) Why is sediment discharge so high in the south-

west Pacific?

(3) Why does so little sediment reach the deep south-

west Pacific Ocean basin compared with the deep
Atlantic Ocean basin?
 Important Factors

ANSWER

(1) Active tectonics and volcanism

(2) Steep slope
(3) Heavy rainfall
(4) Intense human activity
 Subsidence Patterns
Syn-rift phase
Isostatic response to Extensional thermal subsidence
crustal thinning Thermal reequilibration
response to mantle cooling
and thickning

Flexure of lithosphere Rebound due to

due to migration of removal of crust loads
thrust sheets
 Geometry and Unconformity
Accommodation Fluvial aggradation
increases landward

Accommodation
increases seaward Shelf aggradation

Zone A: conformity
Zone B: unconformity
If we have commone
eustatic sea-level changes
Zone A: unconformity
Zone B: conformity
 Passive Margin Basin
Thicken to offshore direction
 Foreland Basin

Gradational to the proximal

Thicken to the proximal

Book Cliffs, Utah

 Sea-level Change
Transgression Highstand
Lowstand
Lowstand Depositional Systems in
The Gulf of Mexico
Transgressive Depositional Systems in
The Gulf of Mexico
Highstand Depositional Systems in
The Gulf of Mexico