Deepwater Clastics: Source-to-Sink Studies in the Exploration of Turbidite Reservoirs (San Diego, California)
The course will provide insights into exploration and development themes and challenges in deepwater depositional systems, with direct analogs to Gulf of Mexico reservoirs.
Description
The course will visit spectacular outcrops along the California coastline just north of San Diego. Field work will follow a source-to-sink approach and will focus on specific deepwater architectural elements, including canyons, slope channels, channel-lobe-transition-zones and lobes. The course will provide insights into exploration and development themes and challenges in deepwater depositional systems, with direct analogs to Gulf of Mexico reservoirs.
Tutor(s)
Zane Jobe: Colorado School of Mines
Duration and Logistics
A five-day field course beginning and ending in La Jolla, California. Training will take place through in-class presentations, field observations, printed exercises and discussions in the field. Transport will be by coach.
Exertion Level
This class requires a MODERATE exertion level. Access to the coastal cliff outcrops is via sandy beaches with walks no more than 3km (1.9 miles). Field stops are all at approximately sea level and some are tide dependent. There are some steep steps to negotiate to reach some beach sections.
Level and Audience
Intermediate. The course is aimed at geoscientists, engineers, petrophysicists, geophysicists and managers who are working deepwater reservoirs or would like to improve their knowledge of these systems.
Course Content
This schedule may be subject to change due to weather conditions and technical objectives.
The cliffs of the California coast preserve the deposits of several episodes of deepwater sedimentation, including those from the Cretaceous through to the Miocene, and we will visit select outcrops covering this time period including:
Miocene-Pliocene Capistrano Formation at San Clemente State Beach.
Eocene strata in the cliffs north of Scripps Institute of Oceanography (Blacks Beach).
Cretaceous Point Loma Formation exposed near La Jolla and on the Point Loma Peninsula.
Day 1 – Sunday 23 March 2025
Participants arrive midday at San Diego airport and make their way to the hotel to meet course leaders.
Field Safety Briefing
Course Introduction / Geological overview
Learning objectives for the lecture: Sedimentary processes and facies of turbidite systems and mass-transport deposits, and the broad nature of submarine depositional architecture
Full group dinner
Overnight in La Jolla
Day 2 – Monday 24 March 2025
Learning objectives for the day
Submarine channel systems, including scales/dimensions, axis-to-margin architecture, evolution, heterogeneity and potential baffles/barriers to flow
Predicting connectivity in channelized systems from their seismic-geomorphic and well-log expression
8-10am: Classroom lecture/discussion
10-5pm: Field work – Channelized reservoir analogs at San Clemente State Beach
5pm-7pm: Freshen up / Free time
7pm: Small group dinners (pre-arranged groups of ~8 people at different restaurants)
Overnight in La Jolla
Day 3 – Tuesday 25 March 2025
Learning objectives for the day
Submarine canyon forming-and-filling processes, including mass wasting, bypass and sandy and muddy fill, up-dip trapping mechanisms
The importance of source-to-sink studies in the exploration of turbidite reservoirs
8-10am: Classroom lecture/discussion
10-5pm: Field work – Contrasting deep and shallow marine units, large-scale submarine canyon/channel architecture at Blacks Beach
5pm-7pm: Freshen up / Free time
7pm: Small group dinners (pre-arranged groups of ~8 people at different restaurants)
Overnight in La Jolla
Day 4 – Wednesday 26 March 2025
Learning objectives for the day
Submarine lobe/sheet systems, including scales/dimensions, axis-to-fringe architecture, compensational stacking, hierarchy and heterogeneity (e.g. hybrid-event-beds)
Channel-lobe-transition-zone deposits and supercritical-flow bedforms
Faulting in lobe deposits, and impacts on connectivity
8-10am: Classroom lecture/discussion
10-5pm: Field work – Contrasting the connectivity and seismic expression of channel-lobe-transition-zone and related lobe deposits of the Point Loma Formation at Sunset Cliffs and Goldie locales
5pm: Free night
Overnight in La Jolla
Day 5 – Thursday 27 March 2025
Learning objectives for the day
Submarine lobe reservoirs: What’s inside the seismic loop?
Facies variability in proximal/axial and distal/fringe lobe deposits, and the implications for volumetric contribution (i.e. pressure support) of low N:G lobe deposits to high N:G lobe deposits.
8-10am: Classroom lecture/discussion
10-5pm: Field work – Contrasting proximal and distal lobe deposits, exploration and production focus at La Jolla and Cabrillo National Monument
5pm-7pm: Freshen up / Free time
7pm: Full group dinner
Overnight in La Jolla
Day 6 – Friday 28 March 2025
8-10:30am: Classroom discussion / wrap-up
Departure for airport. Flights out from 1pm onwards
Objectives
You will learn to:
- Characterize the sedimentary processes and facies of turbidite systems and mass-transport deposits, and the broad nature of submarine depositional architecture.
- Evaluate submarine-channel systems, including scales/dimensions, axis-to-margin architecture, evolution, heterogeneity and potential baffles/barriers to flow.
- Predict connectivity in channelized systems from their seismic-geomorphic and well-log expression.
- Assess submarine canyon forming-and-filling processes, including mass wasting, bypass, sandy and muddy fill, and up-dip trapping mechanisms.
- Illustrate the importance of source-to-sink studies in the exploration of turbidite reservoirs.
- Evaluate submarine lobe/sheet systems, including scales/dimensions, axis-to-fringe architecture, compensational stacking, hierarchy and heterogeneity (e.g. hybrid-event-beds).
- Analyze channel-lobe-transition-zone deposits and supercritical-flow bedforms.
- Assess faulting in lobe deposits and impacts on connectivity.
- Appraise the facies variability in proximal/axial and distal/fringe lobe deposits, and the implications for connectivity between these sub-environments.