Deposition

After rock materials are eroded and transported, they are finally
deposited where they will eventually be retransformed into rocks.

Stream Deposits:

Environments of stream deposition are important because they

provide source and reservoir rocks for petroleum.

Floodplain deposits: It is an area of land adjacent to a stream or river

that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing
valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.

Some of the deposits are permeable and porous offering excellent

reservoir potential. Other deposits are fine-grained and when
deposited with organic matter can act as petroleum source rocks.

Rivers and streams are often in flood. When rivers rise

Above their channel banks, they spill out across the floodplain.

Coarse-grained load deposits first rapidly forming natural levees over

the rivers banks. Finer sediments deposit farther. If these finer grained
sediments contain organic matter, they may form source rocks after
that when buried with subsequent floods by younger sediments.

Channel sands occupy the channel portion of the river floodplain

system. Water speed in channels varies causing variations in the size of
deposited sediments.

Some rivers tend to flow in curved paths. Due to the circular path
of a stream around a bend the surface of the water is slightly higher
near the concave bank (the bank with the larger radius) than near the
convex bank. This slight slope on the water surface of the stream
causes a slightly greater water pressure on the floor of the stream near
the concave bank than near the convex bank. This pressure gradient
drives the slower boundary layer across the floor of the stream toward
the convex bank. The pressure gradient is capable of driving the
boundary layer up the shallow sloping floor of the point bar, causing
sand, gravel and polished stones to be swept and rolled up-hill.

When a river is supplied with more debris than it can carry,

sediments are deposited and the river divides and flows around the
formed obstacle forming braided channels.

A meander, in general, is a bend in a sinuous watercourse or river.

A meander is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the
outer banks and widens its valley and the inner part of the river has less
energy and deposits what it is carrying.
With continual erosion and point bar formation, the river channel
becomes progressively sinuous. Eventually, points of undercutting meet
at the nearest point in the meander forming an oxbow lake.

Water trapped by floods in low areas of the flood plain behind the
natural levee often forms swamps.

Rejuvenation: Literally speaking, rejuvenation is the contrary of aging.

A river is said to be rejuvenated when the base level that it is flowing
down to is lowered. This can happen for various reasons. One example
of rejuvenation is the Nile, which was rejuvenated when the
Mediterranean Sea dried up in the late Miocene. Its base level dropped
from sea level to over 2 miles below sea level. It cut its bed down to
several hundred feet below sea level at Aswan and 8000 feet below sea
level at Cairo. After the Mediterranean re-flooded, those gorges
gradually filled with silt.

Delta Deposits:

When a sediment carrying stream enters a lake or the sea, its

velocity decreases and some of its sediments settle down and deposit
to form a delta. The remaining finer sediments are transported farther
where they deposit to build the delta seaward.

A bird foot delta is formed where stream or river sediments are

confined to several delta channels, provided that ocean waves and
currents don’t redistribute the sediments.

The Mississippi delta in the gulf of Mexico is a bird foot delta,

where the river Nile in Egypt couldn’t form a bird foot delta due to
oceanic currents redistributing sediments and due to The River Nile
breaking into numerous channels far inland in Cairo, so it brings its
sediments to the Mediterranean sea across a wide front instead of a
single channel.

Upper surface of deltas lie at or are near sea level, so they are
subjected to sea tidal floods or river floods. Vegetation growing in inter-
channel swamps is buried by the flooding and its fine-grained
sediments that are rich in organic matter. Inter-channel swamps are
highly favorable for generation of petroleum and are excellent source
rocks.

Stream Deposits and Petroleum: Stream deposition includes channel

and flood plain sediments deposition. The coarsest deposits are
characteristics of the channel deposits. Flood plains vary from coarse-
grained poorly sorted natural levees to fine-grained swamp deposits.
Channel deposits include channel sands and point bars. They are coarse
and permeable and have good reservoir rock potential. Natural levee
deposits have some reservoir potential. Fine-grained organic rich flood
plain deposits and swamp sediments have good source potential.

Delta Deposits and Petroleum: Delta sediments contain abundant

reservoir and source beds. Distributary channels contain porous and
permeable rocks analogous to that of channel deposits. Their reservoir
potential is very good. Inter-channel swamps and flood plains have
excellent petroleum source potential.
 Name: Ibrahem Mohammed Atef Ibrahem
Section: 1

A seminar on: Basic Petroleum Geology – Deposition

Prepared For: Dr. Shohdy