Colorado School of Mines

Mason Dykstra — Slopes Research Group

Mediano Anticline, Pyrenees, Spain

Research Projects

Phone: +1-303-384-2128

E-mail: mdykstra@mines.edu

Continental Slopes Research Consortium (2005-2008)

The primary objective of the research is to examine a number of slope systems to develop ‘rules’ that can be used to predict reservoir properties. These rules will be generated through observation, parameter correlation and verification using a family of deterministic outcrop and seismic datasets, and cross-tested against the various datasets. The intention is that they take the form of generic rules that can be exported to different systems with appropriate input changes.

Link to Proposal

Link to Sponsor’s Website

Slopes Phase II (2008-2011)

Slope systems contain a number of elements that may themselves form reservoirs (channels, levees and other overbank deposits, ponded sand and confined sheet systems), or influence reservoir distribution, or seal (mass transport deposits). Each of these is subject to uncertainties in internal facies architecture, stacking patterns (i.e. temporal evolution), and connectivity. Some of this uncertainty has been addressed by outcrop studies, but much remains, notably in the scale gap between wells and seismic. What can be deduced about the local reservoir-scale (often subseismic) architecture from 1D sections in wells? What are the lower limits on the scale of architectural information that can be derived from seismic data? Our approach to bridging this scale gap involves

a combination of outcrop work ranging from microscopic to seismic scale, seismic analysis and modeling, all linked by an evolving understanding of depositional mechanisms at the scale of single flows.

 

Link to Proposal

 

Stratigraphic architecture of clastic deglacial systems (currently unfunded)

Deglacial successions are well known to contain high-resolution records of rapid changes in the Earth’s climate and sedimentary systems. This proposal aims to investigate the genetic controls on the development of stratigraphic architectures in two coeval deglacial successions. The

research will rely on fieldwork in the very well exposed Paganzo Basin of western Argentina, and will compare the small to large scale stratigraphic architectures that develop in different physiographic settings with the same external forcing factors.

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