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Leeds Thesis Template A database for the digitization of the sedimentary architecture of fluvial systems: uses in pure and applied research Luca Colombera Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment August, 2013 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own, except where work which has formed part of jointly-authored publications has been included. The contribution of the candidate and the other authors to this work has been explicitly indicated overleaf. The candidate confirms that appropriate credit has been given within the thesis where reference has been made to the work of others. ii A version of Chapter 2 is published in Petroleum Geoscience (v. 18, pp. 129-140) under the title "A relational database for the digitization of fluvial architecture: concepts and example applications", with the following list of authors (in order): Colombera, L., Mountney, N.P. and McCaffrey, W.D. The candidate set the scientific scope of the work, devised and developed the methodology, collated data from the published literature, performed all data analysis, drew all illustrations and graphs, and wrote the text. The co-authors proposed the type of methodology, and provided guidance during the design of the method and feedback on the manuscript. A large part of Chapter 3 is accepted for publication in Sedimentology under the title "A quantitative approach to fluvial facies models: methods and example results", with the following list of authors (in order): Colombera, L., Mountney, N.P. and McCaffrey, W.D. The candidate set the scientific scope of the work, developed the methodology, collated data in the field and from the published literature, performed all data analysis, drew all illustrations and graphs, and wrote the text. The co- authors provided scientific guidance and feedback on the manuscript. A large part of Chapter 6 is published in AAPG Bulletin (v. 96, pp. 2143-2166) under the title "A database approach for constraining stochastic simulations of the sedimentary heterogeneity of fluvial reservoirs", with the following list of authors (in order): Colombera, L., Felletti, F., Mountney, N.P. and McCaffrey, W.D. The candidate set the scientific scope of the work, developed the methodology, collated data in the field and from the published literature, performed all data analysis, drew all illustrations and graphs, and wrote the text. The co-authors provided scientific guidance and feedback on the manuscript. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Luca Colombera to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2013 The University of Leeds and Luca Colombera iii Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors Nigel Mountney and Bill McCaffrey, for offering me the possibility to work on this project and for all the guidance and support they have provided in the last three years. I also want to thank Nigel for allowing me so much independence when we had to decide where to head with this work, and for letting me present my research around the world. I also need to thank the sponsors of the Fluvial Research Group (Areva, BHP Billiton, ConocoPhillips, Nexen, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Tullow Oil and Woodside) for financial support to my studies. I also want to thank Fabrizio Felletti for lending his experience in geostatistics as well as for general suggestions on the applied side of my work. At the early stages of the project, the work also benefited from discussion with Jaco Baas, Claire Keevil and Marco Patacci, who are gratefully acknowledged. I also want to thank all the geologists working for various institutions and for the FRG sponsor companies who have given me feedback on different aspects of my work, during conferences or sponsors’ meetings. I would then like to thank Steve Banham, Hollie Romain, Maurício Santos and Jo Venus for helping in various ways whilst sharing memorable field experiences in Utah and Scotland. Maurício and Jo are also thanked for providing unpublished field data. The form and content of three chapters were significantly improved following advice by various journal reviewers and editors: Neil Davies, Bret Fossum, Ted Hickin, Richard Labourdette, Richard Moiola, Colin North, two anonymous referees, as well as editors Phil Christie (Petroleum Geoscience), Stephen Laubach (AAPG Bulletin) and Stephen Rice (Sedimentology) are all kindly thanked. Also, the PhD students and post-docs with whom I have shared many days in the office, lunches or coffees are all thanked for making database work less dull. Finally, I’d particularly like to thank my parents, my brother Guido and my wife Angeliki for their tremendous support. Grazie di tutto. iv Abstract A relational database has been devised as a tool for the digitization of features relating to the sedimentary and geomorphic architecture of modern rivers and ancient fluvial successions, as derived from either original field studies or published examples. The system has been designed in a way that permits the inclusion of hard and soft data – comprising geometries and spatial and hierarchical relationships – referring to classified genetic units belonging to 3 different hierarchical levels, and assigned to stratigraphic volumes that are categorized in terms of deposystem boundary conditions and descriptive parameters. Several applications of the quantitative information generated through database interrogation have been explored, with the scope to demonstrate how a database methodology for the storage of sedimentary architecture data can be of use for both pure and applied sedimentary research. Firstly, an account is given of how the system can been employed for the creation of quantitative fluvial facies models, which summarize information on architectural styles associated with classes of depositional systems. The value of the approach is shown by contrasting results with traditional qualitative models. Secondly, database output on large-scale fluvial architecture has been used in the context of a comparative study aiming to investigate the role of basin-wide aggradation rates as predictors of fluvial architectural styles. The results contrast with what might be expected by commonly considered stratigraphic models; the main implication is the necessity to reconsider continental sequence stratigraphy models or their domain of applicability. This application further provides an example of how the methodology could be generalized to the study of the sensitivity of architecture to its controls. Thirdly, database output has been used to conduct a re-evaluation of previously- proposed approaches to the guidance of well-to-well correlations of subsurface fluvial channel bodies, applied in earlier studies. Making use of the same analogue information, a new probabilistic approach has been proposed as a way to inform or rank correlation panels of channel bodies across equally-spaced wells. Finally, the value of the system as an instrument for constraining object- and pixel- based stochastic structure-imitating models of fluvial sedimentary architecture is collectively demonstrated through a range of example applications employing database output. Abstract v Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. iii Abstract ................................................................................................................ iv Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of tables ......................................................................................................... ix List of figures ....................................................................................................... xi Abbreviations ....................................................................................................xxvi 1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Rationale ............................................................................................... 1 1.2 Aims and Objectives .............................................................................. 2 1.3 Thesis outline ........................................................................................ 3 2 A relational database for the digitization of fluvial architecture: concepts and example applications ........................................................... 7 2.1 Summary ............................................................................................... 7 2.2 Introduction ............................................................................................ 7 2.3 FAKTS: approach and implementation ................................................ 10 2.3.1 Approach .................................................................................... 10 2.3.2 Data definition and standardization ............................................. 11 2.3.3 Implementation ........................................................................... 15 2.4 Applications ......................................................................................... 21 2.4.1 Example output 1: genetic-unit proportions ................................
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