Recognition of down-valley translation in tidally influenced meandering fluvial deposits, Athabasca Oil Sands (Cretaceous), Alberta, Canada

Differential entrapment of charged oil – New insights on McMurray Formation oil trapping mechanisms

“…The McMurray Formation is characterized by a labyrinth of reservoir and non-reservoir facies encountered in a range of large scale depositional elements such as point bar and mud plug deposits (Flach, 1984;Wightman and Pemberton, 1997;Strobl et al, 1997) as well as counter point bar (Smith et al, 2009) and translating point bar (Hubbard et al, 2011;Fustic et al, 2012) deposits that accumulated in ancient meandering river systems characterized by downstream translations as the dominant process Fig. 5).…”

“…5). The typical size of reservoir compartments may exceed thicknesses of 30 m and up to several kilometers laterally, while mud plug deposits that separate lateral compartments are commonly more than 30 m thick and up to 500 m wide (Strobl et al, 1997;Brekke and Evoy, 2004;Druesne et al, 2008;Hubbard et al, 2011;Fustic et al, 2012;Fig. 5).…”

Sequence architecture and sedimentary characteristics of a Middle Jurassic incised valley, western Sichuan depression, China

“…PBs can be differentiated from SCHs based on sorting and lateral accretion bedding (Fustic et al 2012). DA macroforms, LA deposits, and sandy bedforms are the most common architectural elements in PB facies (Miall 1996).…”

“…Tectonic uplift and climatic changes can drive the base level; however, their influence varies from upstream to downstream. The mid-to downstream segments of rivers are primarily controlled by lake-or sea-level (analogous to the base level) changes (Hampson et al 2012;Alqahtani et al 2015), whereas the upstream segments of rivers may be more directly controlled by tectonism (Shanley and McCabe 1994;Mattheus et al 2007;González-Bonorino et al 2010;Alqahtani et al 2015). show boulder clays; and e shows a basal bounding surface, interpreted as sandy channel facies.…”

A 3D forward stratigraphic model of fluvial meander-bend evolution for prediction of point-bar lithofacies architecture

“…In contrast to expansional point-bar deposits, which exhibit scroll-bar planform morphologies that are convex in the direction of bar propagation and which are usually dominated by sand-prone lithofacies, counter-point bar deposits typically preserve concave-shaped plan-form patterns that comprise mud-or silt-prone lithofacies ). The finer overall grain size and increased lithological heterogeneity associated with counter point-bar deposits is a notable problem in assessing subsurface hydrocarbon reservoir potential (Fustic et al, 2012;Smith et al, 2009).…”