Abstract
The vary well exposed submarine fan complex in the southwestern part of the Karoo basin permits close examination of channel-fills and in places their associated overbank deposits. The complex comprises five arenaceous fan systems some of which attain 60 m in thickness. The fans are vertically stacked and separated by basinal shale deposits; each system with its own direction of growth. The association of channelized sandstone bodies and thin-bedded sandstone and shale packages in an updip position from predominantly stacked lobe deposits suggest preservation of middle fan settings. A 500 m wide, 20 m thick channel-fill consisting massive amalgamated sandstone beds occupying the channel thalweg occurs in a setting dominated by thin-bedded, ripple-laminated sandstone and shale. Gradual thinning of the channel-fill beds toward the channel edges, lack of internal lateral accretion, and a high width to depth ratio suggests a low sinuous to straight channel. The channel-fill is capped by an abandonment facies characterized by ripple-laminated sandstone and shale. Stacked, laterally offset channel-fill deposits with highly erosional contacts and typical well-bedded overbank deposits form channel-overbank complexes and characterize the mid-fan region of the uppermost fan system. Palaeocurrent directions and gradual diminishing of bed-thickness away from the generally massively bedded, amalgamatedmore » channel-fill sandstones confirm a simultaneous channel/overbank origin for these deposits. Levee morphology has not been recognized. Both examples of channel-fills cited reveal part of the complexity of the channelized portions of submarine fans and hence the implications thereof in exploring for hydrocarbon reservoirs.« less
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