For those that have limited time, a storyboard 

of our
NEW PAPER
in Basin Research below.. 




@stratleeds @seis_matters @BasinResearch https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bre.12508










@stratleeds @seis_matters @BasinResearch https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bre.12508
Syn-rift basin records are complex, but important for understanding sediment routing from source-to-sink 
, resource distribution 
and the controls that shape our landscapes 






Multiple depositional systems from different origins develop and interact through time in hangingwall basins
The resultant architecture is difficult to predict and preservation of net-erosional landscapes is limited


We study an individual, subsurface fault block (Thebe-2) on the Exmouth Plateau, NW Shelf, Australia
We use beautiful, open-access 3D seismic data
from Geoscience Australia and local exploration wells.


We undertake detailed seismic facies and stratigraphic analysis
and note the important distinction between planar-sloping fan geometries interpreted to be slope aprons and radial, distinct clinoforms interpreted to be fan deltas


Our stratigraphic framework reveals multiple depositional systems deriving from the footwall, hangingwall dip slope (and antithetic faults) and axially from the fault tip 


Depositional systems interact in a range of ways: diverting, building around eachother, onlapping and interfingering 

- representing a range of compensational stacking styles, hardly documented in conceptual tectono-sedimentary models



Footwall-derived systems in the immediate hangingwall show amazing variability along-strike 

, demonstrating the delicate balance between accommodation and sediment supply across short length-scales



We calculate volume of footwall erosion and volume of the *footwall-derived* hangingwall fans. Balancing volumes
: Excess fw erosion = sediment bypass; excess hw fill = sediment input from beyond the fault crest. (See carefully considered assumptions in the paper!)

Did I mention we work with time data?
Our paper goes through this approach in detail, so it can be used in other basins with time or depth-converted seismic data


Our work supports subaerial exposure of the fault block and adjacent fault terraces producing small catchments that fed deposition in narrow rift valleys and palaeo-shorelines that fringed emergent fault blocks 




Could such hangingwall fans form prospective reservoirs, analogous to the Brae Play, N Sea? 


Volume balancing picks out the through-going sediment input points in the absence of catchment imaging.
Could these be the conduits to the cleanest, reservoir-quality sands in the basin?


Takeaway 1: Let’s incorporate the interactions between multiple depositional systems in fault-confined basins that this and other recent studies highlight

Takeaway 2: The independent volume balancing approach could be applied to other rift basin-fills to identify through-going sediment input points and maybe also areas of sediment bypass
