Overview of Carbonate Platform Sequences, Cycle Stratigraphy and Reservoirs in Greenhouse and Ice-House Worlds

Abstract

Abstract In this part we will examine in general terras how carbonate cycles are generated on carbonate platforms, types of carbonate cycles developed, stacking patterns, margin geometries, degree of disconformity development, and briefly overview any characteristic diagenetic effects. In order to do this, a brief review of controls on carbonate deposition, platform types, and sequence stratigraphy is given. This is followed by discussions of cycle development in greenhouse, transitional and icehouse worlds with brief examination of examples. I would like to emphasize that our understanding of climatic forcing of the cyclic stratigraphic record is still simplistic, and any of the models presented are tentative, and certainly will be modified and refined in the future. Part 2 (by Charlie Kerans) will examine cycles and one- and two-dimensional stacking patterns, high resolution stratigraphy, and reservoir geometry on Late Permian platforms in the Permian Basin of West Texas, using examples and exercises from Guadalupe Mt. outcrops, and outcrop and core data from a major Permian reservoir. The Late Permian examples typically reflect relatively low amplitude sea level fluctuations, following collapse of the Permo-Carboniferous ice-sheets. Part 3 (by Jim Weber, Rick Sarg and Frank Wright) will examine reservoirs formed in an ice-house world during the major Carboniferous glaciation of Gondwana, using the Middle Pennsylvanian carbonates of the Giant Aneth oil field, Paradox Basin, Utah. Again, outcrop and subsurface data are used to develop a regional sequence stratigraphic framework, and the controls on facies development and reservoir quality of these stratified reservoirs examined.