Stratal slicing of Miocene-Pliocene sediments in Vermilion Block 50-Tiger Shoal Area, offshore Louisiana

Abstract

Many people have viewed modern land surfaces from commercial airplanes and marveled at the form and geometry of geomorphic features such as river channels, deltas, barrier islands, and dune fields. These views represent complete images of the modern time surfaces. We can classify the depositional nature of features on these images by interpreting their planiform geometry and geographic context. In fact, modern 3-D seismic technology has made it possible for us to image similar, but much older, geomorphic or depositional features preserved in the rock record. Unfortunately, although many reservoir-scale (well-to-well scale) features can be detected in vertical seismic lines, few such features can be resolved and interpreted in the vertical perspective because of the data's limited bandwidth. Only in the horizontal perspective are such depositional features large enough to be resolvable when displayed in map view on geologic time surfaces.