Quantitative approaches for big river deposits: integrated field geology and 3D ph...
Grant number: | 14/16739-8 |
Support type: | Regular Research Grants |
Duration: | February 01, 2015 - January 31, 2017 |
Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences |
Principal Investigator: | Renato Paes de Almeida |
Grantee: | Renato Paes de Almeida |
Home Institution: | Instituto de Geociências (IGC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
Assoc. researchers: | André Marconato ; Bernardo Tavares Freitas ; Liliane Janikian Paes de Almeida ; Luiz Eduardo Anelli ; Marco Ianniruberto ; Mario Luis Assine ; Vinícius Tieppo Meira |
Abstract
The depositonal architecture and the sedimentary processes and products in big rivers are one of the main unsolved aspects of clastic sedimentology, with implications for hydrocarbon reservoir geology and the interpretation of paleogeography, past climate and tectonic evolution in a number of sedimentary basins worldwide. Recent international effort has been directed towards the improvement of the still insuficient database on the dynamics and morphology of sedimentary architectural elements in big rivers, aiming at more elaborate facies models considering the particularities of these systems. The present proposal focuses on one key aspect of the sedimentology of large rivers, namely the dynamics of bars and channel bedforms, aiming to directly contribute to the advance of our knowledge of the architecture of large rivers through the integration of varied sources of information from active fluvial systems and the rock record. In this way, the improvement of facies models will be based on shallow seismic, GPR and OSL data from active and stabilized bars in the largest rivers in the Amazon, integrated to outcrop studies in recent and Neogene successions in the same region. The characterization of the bar-scale architecture of the active rivers will be used as a key to the interpretation of the evolution of the basin through the Neogene, focusing on the distribution and evolution of large channels and their roles as biogeographical barriers. The advances in the characterization of bar-scale architecture will also be applied to the interpretation of the Mesozoic rock record of Gondwana, with the detailed study of two well exposed examples of large river deposits (Cretaceous of Northeastern Brazil and Triassic of Eastern Australia), aiming at the evolution of the implications of the models for the interpretation of hydrocarbon reservoir analogues. The proposal is integrated to the Biota Amazonia project (FAPESP 2011/10400-0). (AU)