Abstract
AbstractThe Lower Jurassic Bridport Sand Formation records net deposition in the Wessex Basin, southern UK of a low-energy, siliciclastic shoreface that was dominated by storm-event beds reworked by bioturbation. Shoreface sandstones dip at 2–3° to define (subaerial?) clinoforms that pass distally into a near-horizontal platform, and then steepen again to form steep (2–3°) subaqueous clinoforms in the underlying Down Cliff Clay Member. The overall morphology indicates mud-dominated clinoforms of compound geometry. Compound clinoforms are grouped into progradational sets whose stacking reflects tectonic subsidence and sediment dispersal patterns, and also controls basin-scale reservoir distribution and diachroneity of the formation.Each shoreface clinoform set consists of an upward-shallowing succession that is several tens of metres thick with a laterally continuous mudstone interval at its base. The successions are punctuated by calcite-cemented concretionary layers of varying lateral continuity, which formed along bioclastic lags at the base of storm-event beds. Concretionary layers thus represent short periods of rapid sediment accumulation, while their distribution likely results from variations in storm-wave climate, relative sea-level, and/or sediment availability. The distribution of impermeable mudstone intervals that bound each clinoform set and concretionary layers along clinoform surfaces controls oil drainage in the Bridport Sand Formation reservoir.
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