Sedimentary architecture of a canyon-style fairway feeding a deep-water clastic system, the Miocene Cingöz Formation, southern Turkey: significance for reservoir characterisation and modelling

Abstract

The sedimentary architecture of a submarine canyon-fill supplying sediment to a deep-water fan system in the Adana Basin, southern Turkey is described and quantified. The canyon is at least 9-km long, 3–4-km wide, asymmetric in cross-section and has an exposed fill, 360-m thick consisting of sands and gravels deposited in sheets across the entire width of the canyon. Normal graded and nongraded pebbly sandstones reflecting deposition from both waning and waxing high-density turbidity currents dominate these deposits. Facies are identified and correlated between closely spaced sedimentary logs. A hierarchy of bedding scales is recognised, ranging from individual beds and their sedimentary structures through 3–21-m-thick packages of beds to 100+m thick major units. This hierarchy provides the framework for computer-generated 3D models where sandstone bodies and facies are stochastically modelled to provide a better understanding of the internal sedimentary architecture within similar types of canyons in subsurface or in areas of poor exposure.