Evolution of Late Oligocene - Early Miocene attached and isolated carbonate platforms in a volcanic ridge context (Maldives type), Yadana field, offshore Myanmar

Abstract

This study investigates the stratigraphic evolution of the Late Oligocene - Early Miocene carbonate platforms of the Yadana area (offshore Myanmar). Well data, regional 2D and local 3D seismic surveys allow the identification of three shallow-water carbonate platforms (Yadana, 3DF and 3DE) showing various morphologic and stratigraphic patterns influenced by the presence of a paleohigh. The identification of seven seismic sequences in the Yadana area constrains the stratigraphic evolution in three stages: (1) development of aggrading attached and isolated platforms during the Chattian; (2) a period of platform emersion during the Oligocene - Miocene transition; (3) drowning of the smaller buildup (3DE) associated with km-scale backstepping on the large platforms (3DF and Yadana) during the Aquitanian. The Aquitanian marks the onset of renewed volcanic activity associated with the development of fringing carbonate reefs during the Burdigalian. The rapid (∼6 My) development of these wide (∼5–70 km) and thick (∼300–850 m) carbonate platforms has been mainly controlled by the subsidence. However, the results highlight a strong overprint of eustatic fluctuations on the rates of change in accommodation, and hence on the stratigraphic architecture of the carbonate platforms. Based on an alternative model for the Cenozoic geodynamic evolution of the Yadana area, our results suggest that the platforms developed on a volcanic ridge of hotspot origin located in the Indian Ocean and not on a volcanic arc. Subduction jump processes are interpreted to have played a key role in the demise of all platforms by drastically changing the paleoenvironmental conditions during the Early Miocene, and led to the present-day location of the Yadana Ridge in a back-arc setting. The carbonate platforms from the Yadana area are thus a representative example of the interplay between global mechanisms and local paleoenvironmental parameters on carbonate platform initiation, growth and demise.