PyBacktrack 1.0: A Tool for Reconstructing Paleobathymetry on Oceanic and Continental Crust

Abstract

The pyBacktrack software package allows the backtracking of the paleo‐water depth of ocean drill sites, providing a framework for reconstructing the accumulation history of sediment components through time. The software incorporates the effects of decompaction of common marine lithologies and allows backtracking of sites on both oceanic and continental crust. Backtracking on ocean crust is based on a user‐selected lithospheric age‐depth model and the present‐day unloaded basement depth. Backtracking on continental crust is based on syn‐rift and post‐rift subsidence that is modeled using the total sediment thickness at the site and the timing of the transition from rifting to thermal subsidence. On sites that did not penetrate basement, the age‐coded stratigraphy is supplemented with a synthetic stratigraphic section that represents the undrilled section, whose thickness is estimated using a global sediment thickness map. This is essential for estimating the decompacted thickness of the total sedimentary section, and thus bathymetry, through time. PyBacktrack further allows the consideration of the effects of mantle‐convection driven dynamic topography on paleo‐water depth. The user can select one of the dynamic topography models bundled with pyBacktrack or add other models. PyBacktrack runs on all platforms with a Python 2.7 and a pyGPlates installation and is available via Github.

PALEOSTRIPv1.0 – a user-friendly 3D backtracking software to reconstruct paleo-bathymetries

“…9. For all parameters used in those example see 3D maps time-evolving and spatially varying Müller et al (2018b)…”

“…The estimated compaction trends can be applied in thickness restoration of stratigraphic units and subsidence analysis data that can be spatially interpolated between input drill sites to reconstruct a temporal basin evolution. PyBacktrack, is a 1D-backtracking and backstripping open-source code (Müller et al, 2018b) aimed at reconstructing paleo-bathymetries. It allows to process drilling sites both on oceanic and continental crust and can be connected to the suite of Geodynamical open-source software GPlates (https://www.gplates.org/) and benefit from geodynamical corrections related to cinematic, tectonic and geodynamic models of plates tectonic movements through time.…”

Quantitative assessment of the tight gas reservoirs in the Obaiyed field, Shushan Basin, NW Egypt

“…Backstripping technique (Watts and Ryan 1976;Steckler and Watts 1978) is a straightforward application to quantify the isostatic response of a stratigraphic section in a sedimentary basin (Müller et al 2018). The backstripping aims to retrieve the geo-history, e.g.…”

“…Following the approach of e.g. (Steckler and Watts 1978;Watts 1981;Müller et al 2018)), we started by de-compacting each sedimentary stratum to the time where it deposited using the following relationships:…”

“…We studied mud-log data from eight wells distributed in the Obaiyed field, the largest field in the basin, using commercial software packages (Techlog®, Petromode®), to track the petrophysical parameters, in each well, and to correlate them between the different wells. We computed the subsidence history along with the changes in the physical properties of different formations, in each well, using the 1D-backstripping technique (Müller et al 2018). We integrated the output results with previous 3D seismic and fault analysis studies in the basin.…”