Rod Graham

Rice University

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James Pindell

Rice University

Roberto S. Molina Garza

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Diego Villagómez

Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Brian W. Horn

Cairn Research (United Kingdom)

Bodo Weber

Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada

Paul Bellingham

Geophysical Survey

Daniel F. Stöckli

The University of Texas at Austin

María Isabel Sierra-Rojas

Universidad de Los Andes

Kenneth McDermott

University College Dublin

Robin Pilcher

Hess (United States)

Cooperative Institutions

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

ACT Government

Geoscience Australia

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Rice University

Geophysical Survey

Geophysical Laboratory

Hess (United States)

Imperial College London

Stanford University

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The Barreme Basin and the Gevaudan diapir - an example of the interplay between compressional tectonics and salt diapirism

Rod Graham Adam Csicsek

The Barreme Basin and the Gevaudan diapir - an example of the interplay between compressional tectonics and salt diapirism &#160;Adam Csicsek and Rod GrahamImperial College London&#160;Our understanding of the role of salt diapirism in determining the finite geometry of fold and thrust belts has grown apace in the last few years, but the interplay between the two remains a significant problem for structural interpretation. The Gevaudan diapir in the fold and thrust belt of the sub-Alpine chain of Haute Provence is well known and has been documented by numerous eminent alpine structural geologists. Graciansky, Dardot, Mascle, Gidon and Lickorish and Ford have all described and illustrated the geometry and evolution of the structure, and Lickorish and Ford&#8217;s interpretation is figured as an example of&#160; diapirism &#160;in a compressional setting by Jackson and Hudec in their text on salt tectonics. We review these various interpretations and present another.The differences between the various interpretations say much about the complex interplay of salt diapirism and thin-skinned thrusting and have profound implications for the way we interpret the tectonic and sedimentary evolution of the Barreme basin which lies adjacent to the diapirThe Barreme basin is a thrust-top fragment of the Provencal foreland basin and has been described in detail from both sedimentological (e.g. Evans and Elliott, 1999) and structural (e.g. Antoni and Meckel, 1997) points of view. Here we make the case that it is also a salt related minibasin - a secondary minibasin developed on a now welded allochthonous Middle Cretaceous salt canopy. &#160;We believe that within the basin it is possible to interpret successive depocentres which may record progressive salt withdrawal. We argue that though thrust loading must be the fundamental driving mechanism responsible for salt movement late in the tectonic history of the region, thrusting has not done much more than modify existing salt related geometry. &#160;&#160;&#160;

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3655

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The Great Australian Bight: A Break-Up Story Told With Deep Seismic

International Conference and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia 13-16 September 2015 (2015)

Kenneth McDermott Brian Horn Paul Bellingham Rod Graham James Pindell

Evaluation of high quality deep, regional seismic reflection data provides the opportunity to not only investigate the petroleum systems aspects of the Great Australian Bight (GAB) margin but also to link them to underlying crustal architecture and deformation mechanisms. Here, using ION's BightSPANTM, we present observations for the crustal structure, rift elements, and structural mechanisms responsible for the development of this margin of the Southern Rift System. Lithospheric break-up and seafloor spreading between the GAB and its conjugate in the Australian Antarctic Territory occurred ca. 83Ma following a protracted phase of continental stretching and break-up that initiated in the mid – late Jurassic. The evolution of this rift system was magma-poor and likely followed a history of stretching, thinning, and exhumation phases, similar to those described for the Iberia-Newfoundland rift system. Evidence for the stretching phase is confined to half graben structures bounded by high-angle normal faults beneath the proximal Ceduna delta. The thinning phase is characterised by the sag basin overlying hyper-extended crust (< 10km thick) that is likely to have been thinned via overprinted generations of detachment faults accompanied by crustal embrittlement and mantle serpentinisation. Exhumed mantle (up to 60 km wide) is present at the COT, unroofed by multiple generations of detachment faults, evidence for which lies in multiple continental allochthons oceanward of the unroofed mantle. We demonstrate the impact the extensional architecture has on the overlying Ceduna delta system and its gravitational collapse during continental break-up and discuss the implications for the petroleum potential of the basin.

10.1190/ice2015-2211170

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Integrated Cretaceous–Cenozoic plate tectonics and structural geology in southern Mexico

Geological Society London Special Publications (2020)

Rod Graham James Pindell Diego Villagómez Roberto S. Molina Garza James W. Granath

Abstract The structural evolution of southern Mexico is described in the context of its plate tectonic evolution and illustrated by two restored crustal scale cross-sections through Cuicateco and the Veracruz Basin and a third across Chiapas. We interpret the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous opening of an oblique hyper-stretched intra-arc basin between the Cuicateco Belt and Oaxaca Block of southern Mexico where Lower Cretaceous deep-water sediments accumulated. These rocks, together with the hyper-stretched basement beneath them and the Oaxaca Block originally west of them, were thrust onto the Cretaceous platform of the Cuicateco region during a Late Cretaceous–Eocene orogenic event. The mylonitic complex of the Sierra de Juárez represents this hyper-stretched basement, perhaps itself an extensional allochthon. The Chiapas fold-and-thrust belt is mainly Neogene in age. Shallowing of the subduction angle of the Cocos Plate in the wake of the Chortis Block, suggested by seismicity and migrating arc volcanism, is thought to play an important role in the development of the Chiapas fold-and-thrust belt itself, helping to explain the structural dilemma of a vertical transcurrent plate boundary fault (the Tonalá Fault) at the back of an essentially dip-slip fold-and-thrust belt.

10.1144/sp504-2020-70

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Role of outer marginal collapse on salt deposition in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, Campos and Santos basins

Geological Society London Special Publications (2018)

James Pindell Rod Graham Brian W. Horn

Abstract Outer marginal collapse (OMC), a recently proposed process by which top-rift and base-salt unconformities formed near sea level may subside rapidly to 2.5–3 km at continental margins as mantle exhumation or seafloor spreading begins, needs further examination. We examine salt deposition at three margins and find that the differing positions and volumes of salt can be related to different durations of salt deposition as OMC and subsequent mantle exhumation proceed. Along NW Florida, salt is thin but deep and is interpreted as having formed at the start of OMC, before drowning further to abyssal depths. In the Campos Basin, salt is thick and extends across tens of kilometres of interpreted exhumed mantle, interpreted as having formed during the entire period of OMC before spreading onto mantle during exhumation. In the Santos Basin, salt is thick and extends across c. 100 km of interpreted exhumed mantle and/or oceanic crust, arguably requiring ‘lateral tectonic accommodation’, whereby salt deposition persists near global sea level across the conjugated salt basin during mantle exhumation beneath mobile salt. The supposition that OMC can account for salt deposition in three different basins without invoking problematic 1.5–2 km-deep subaerial depressions provides further support for the process.

Deposition

10.1144/sp476.4

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Structural architecture and basin evaluation of the North West Shelf

The APPEA Journal (2014)

Lynn Pryer J.E. Blevin Gabriel Nelson Guillaume Sanchez Jen-Deng Lee

The WestraliaSPAN 2D regional program extends across all basins of Australia’s North West Shelf (Carnarvon/Roebuck/Browse/Bonaparte basins) and Arafura regions. The survey is designed with long offset and record length (18 sec) acquisition parameters to image the important deep crustal and sub crustal architecture and depositional systems across this complex margin. The regional program provides unique, state-of-the-art depth imaging of deep-basement rift structures of the Westralian Superbasin, as well as the lower crust and Moho. The survey has multiple transects which cross the transition from continental to oceanic crust, that provide insight into the distribution of volcanics and a possible hyper-extended rift margin. An integrated geological and geophysical interpretation encompasses available well, seismic and potential field data. Gravity models were developed to aid in depth conversion and the structural interpretation of the deep crust and Moho. A comprehensive model of basin formation provides the context for regional correlation of tectonostratigraphic packages throughout these linked basin systems, highlighting pre-Jurassic rift basins and their structural controls. While the North West Shelf, Browse and Bonaparte basins are proven and established hydrocarbon provinces, a future step-change in exploration concepts involves an integrated, margin-scale understanding of these basin systems and their potential resources. Collectively, the new dataset and interpretation will aid explorers in understanding the nature and distribution of key petroleum systems elements (reservoir/source/seal) and processes (heatflow, timing of source maturity, expulsion, migration and entrapment).

Continental Margin

Passive margin

Hydrocarbon exploration

10.1071/aj13047

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Role of Magmatic Evacuation in the Production of SDR Complexes at Magma-Rich Passive Margins

SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) eBooks (2014)

James Pindell Rod Graham Brian W. Horn

Seaward dipping reflector or SDR complexes comprise piles of individual basaltic flows and interbedded sediments that are thought to have formed subaerially at the flanks of tholeiitic shield volcanoes like those in the Afar or at larger magmatic complexes like Iceland. During the rift process, these flows subsequently acquire very steep true dips (up to 25°) almost always in the seaward direction. Past explanations for the acquisition of these dips involve progressive burial, loading and flexure by subsequent flows (e.g., Pálmason, 1980), or listric, landward-dipping faulting and magmatic dilation (Geoffroy, 2005). These factors no doubt play a role, but we feel that such models fall short of a full explanation by exceeding reasonable amounts of flexure and the amount by which huge blocks of continental crust can rotate by faulting alone. Such models also do not provide an explanation for how the topmost SDR layer subsides rapidly to the depth of normal oceanic crust as the latter begins to form, a problem that has been apparent since Mutter et al. (1982) and Hinz (1981).

Flood basalt

10.5724/gcs.14.33.0001

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The impact of deformation timing on the prospectivity of the Middle Magdalena sub-thrust, Colombia

Geological Society London Special Publications (2007)

William Sassi Rod Graham Ralph Gillcrist M.J. Adams R. F. Ballesteros Gomez

Abstract Once deeply buried rocks are elevated in thrust belts, the resulting effects on reservoir evolution, source-rock maturity, hydrocarbon phase and charge history pose major problems for thrust belt exploration. To understand the geometrical evolution and burial history of thrust belts, successive structural restorations and dynamic basin modelling are needed. The forward modelling program ‘Thrustpack’ provides a semi-quantitative way forward, and this paper presents a ‘Thrustpack’ case study. The area considered is Rio Horta in the western foothills of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera, where westward-directed frontal structures break out onto the foreland basin of the Middle Magdalena Valley. A large sub-thrust anticline underlies the frontal thrusts and provides a substantial exploration lead. Following conventional models of back-thrusting and ‘fish-tailing’, the structure can be interpreted as entirely late, post-dating the overlying thrusts and once buried by the entire sedimentary megasequence of the Magdalena foreland basin. This would imply that the prospective section had been buried to a depth of about 12 km before uplift, and suggest a hydrocarbon graveyard, or, at best, dry gas in fractured, tight rock and potential overpressure. If the structure formed early, there is a chance of preserving both original porosity and liquid hydrocarbon in the structure, and charge risk is lessened because hydrocarbons were able to migrate into a structure that already existed. Hints from geological maps and the (generally poor quality) seismic data suggest that this is the more likely situation. It is consistent with the idea of an evolving palaeo-landscape and a mountain front with a very long history, where the structure remained relatively elevated during later sedimentation and thrusting. The modelling of these two alternative possible structural histories in ‘Thrustpack’ tests their viability and quantifies the hydrocarbon maturation, migration history and porosity evolution. The model in which the structure develops early presents real exploration opportunity whereas the alternative presents unacceptable exploration risk.

Prospectivity mapping

10.1144/gsl.sp.2007.272.01.24

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Continental Margin Formation and Creation of "Lateral Tectonic Accommodation Space" for Salt Deposition, Campos and Santos Basins, São Paulo Plateau, Brazil

Gulf Coast Section SEPM eBooks (2015)

James Pindell Rod Graham Paul Bellingham Ken McDermott Marek Kamiński

Within the scope of our ongoing seismic reflection interpretations of basement at magmatic continental margins, and in particular those of the South Atlantic, we report on our current views concerning the São Paulo Plateau offshore Brazil, which involves the Campos, Santos, and Pelotas basins. In addition, much can be gleaned by integrating the African conjugate margin, which we also consider to a lesser extent. Our broad-brush view for this segment of South Atlantic rifting is that:

Continental Margin

Basement

Salt tectonics

Passive margin

Margin (machine learning)

Scope (computer science)

10.5724/gcs.15.34.0787

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Citations (1)

Revisiting the deep structure of the Northern Carnarvon Basin: insights from new seismic reflection data

The APPEA Journal (2015)

Paul Bellingham Leanne Cowie Rod Graham Brian W. Horn Kenneth McDermott

The Carnarvon Basin has long been a focus for hydrocarbon exploration and development. Many models have been proposed for the basin’s lithospheric structure, although the great thickness of the Mungaroo delta system has hampered the clear imaging of the underlying rift and break-up structure. New deep, long offset seismic reflection data acquired across the basin as a part of ION’s Westralia SPAN survey provide unique imaging of the deep basement structures and the complete overlying sedimentary section. The survey crossed the offshore terrains, from weakly stretched continental crust to oceanic crust. The margin has developed during two major events; one of Permo-Carboniferous age, prior to the Mungaroo delta system, and one of Middle to Upper Jurassic age. There is a possibility that the basement terrain under parts of the Exmouth Plateau is actually Permo-Carboniferous oceanic crust, rather than hyper-extended continental crust or exhumed continental lithospheric mantle. Deformation during the second major event in the Jurassic was focussed in the Barrow-Dampier Sub-basin and at the present day ocean-continent transition with little deformation across the Exmouth Plateau in-between. The only basement involved extension appears to be in the Barrow-Dampier system and appears to be non-volcanic. The outer margin along the northwest edge of the Exmouth Plateau includes significant volcanic input, likely underplating and emplacement of seaward-dipping reflectors.

Volcanic plateau

Basement

Continental Margin

10.1071/aj14056

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Tectono-sedimentary evolution of Southern Mexico. Implications for Cretaceous and younger source-to-sink systems in the Mexican foreland basins and the Gulf of Mexico

EarthArXiv (California Digital Library) (2022)

Diego Villagómez Carl Steffensen James Pindell Roberto S. Molina Garza Gary M. Gray

An extensive dataset of existing and new geo/thermochronological data from several areas in Southern Mexico constrains the tectonic history of the region, as well as various source-to-sink relationships and local burial histories. Our interpretation acknowledges that not all cooling/heating observed in the source areas is due to erosional exhumation/burial but, in some cases, due to advective heat transfer from magmatic sources, which potentially overprinted earlier events. In this work, we identified several areas that have been exhumed since the Early Cretaceous and potentially provided clastic material to the southern Gulf of Mexico area.We help to document how the Mexican (Laramide) Orogeny propagated eastwards and southwards from the Late Cretaceous through the early Oligocene. The first sediments reaching the Tampico–Misantla and Veracruz basins derived mostly from eroded Cretaceous carbonate material that covered the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra de Juárez Complex and the Cuicateco belts, as well as foredeep/intra-orogenic basin deposits formerly covering them. Possibly by the end of the Mexican Orogeny, the clastic Jurassic and older crystalline basement rocks became exposed and became the main sources of quartz-rich clastic material to the most easterly foreland basins and Gulf of Mexico. Exposure was probably assisted by higher angle basement thrusts such as the Vista Hermosa/Valle Nacional faults. The Mixtequita and Guichicovi blocks have also provided an important source of quartz-rich and metamorphic lithic-rich material to the southern Veracruz Basin possibly since the Eocene.For most of the Cenozoic, the Chiapas and the Sureste basins were sourced from areas south of the Chiapas Massif, i.e., the North America–Caribbean plate boundary zone along today’s Chiapas coastal plain. This plate boundary zone accommodated relative displacement between Mexico and the Chortis Block of the Caribbean Plate. Paleocene–middle Miocene sediments within the Chiapas Basin were at least partially sourced from i) metamorphic complexes in the northern Chortis Block; ii) the parautochthonous Chontal Complex, an oceanic-like basin sandwiched between Chortis and southern Mexico; iii) the elongating volcanic arc along southern Mexico and western Chortis; and iv) the Cretaceous and Jurassic sedimentary cover of the southern flank of the Chiapas Massif,The westward telescoping of southern Mexico onto the Cocos Plate in the wake of Chortis has produced flat slab subduction geometry and eastwardly-younging uplift of the Xolapa Belt (Oligo–Miocene) and the Chiapas Massif (late Miocene). It also caused reorganization of the drainage systems providing material to the Chiapas and Sureste basins.Our results highlight the importance of understanding relative block and plate boundary displacements in a dynamic hinterland and consider the role of major faults when interpreting source-to-sink relationships in the area. We describe the latter relationships for several geologic time intervals in which reservoir-prone sediments were delivered to the southern Gulf of Mexico. Finally, we integrate the source-to-sink history to provide an assessment of reservoir quality and hydrocarbon prospectivity in the region.

Orogeny

Basement

10.31223/x5hp9c

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