From 3-D Visualization to Modeling of Windermere Deep-Water Turbidite Outcrop Analogues, Castle Creek, B.C., Canada.

SCHWARZ, E., BUCKLEY, S.J., TERLAKY, V., HOWELL, J.A., ARNOTT, R.W.C.

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Congreso; 2008 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition; 2008

American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society for Sedimentary Geology

Abstract. Deep marine channel-fills with strongly asymmetric levee deposits have been inferred from several turbidite reservoirs (e.g., Upper Oligocene - West Africa; Upper Pliocene - Nile delta), but to-date outcrop analogues and quantitative analysis on the reservoir performance for this type of deposit remain sparse. Digital outcrop-capture techniques were used to collect data to facilitate the building of seismic-scale, geocellular model of deep-water architectural elements from the Neoproterozoic, Windermere turbidite system in British Columbia. The Castle Creek outcrops are vertically dipping and crop-out along a recently deglaciated, gently inclined to flat topography, locally cliffs provide detail in the third dimension. Key architectural elements are clearly exposed and can be traced for 100s of meters to 2 km. Imaging the vertically dipping strata in a photo-realistic, virtual outcrop involved a number of novel techniques, including the draping of high-resolution aerial images (1:3800) on to a topographic model (DEM) and then integrating the dataset with a Ground-Based LIDAR survey of the cliffs. The virtual outcrop model built for the Castle Creek area allows architectural elements to be mapped. Key elements include channelized and non-channelized deposits which are interpreted to represent deposition in slope and basin-floor systems respectively. Sedimentological and stratigraphic field data were added to the photo-realistic outcrop model as additional input for building the geocellular model. Preliminary results on the modeling of a single, 100 m-thick channelized architectural element, bounded on both sides by genetically-related but strongly asymmetric levee deposits, will be presented.