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Subsidence Analysis and Visualization For Sedimentary Basin Analysis and

Modelling

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-76424-5

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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN
PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Eun Young Lee · Johannes Novotny

Michael Wagreich

Subsidence
Analysis and
Visualization
For Sedimentary
Basin Analysis and
Modelling
SpringerBriefs in Petroleum Geoscience &
Engineering

Series editors
Dorrik Stow, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
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Lateef Akanji, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Khalik Mohamad Sabil, Heriot-Watt University, Putrajaya, Malaysia
Susan Agar, ARAMCO, Houston, USA
Kenichi Soga, University of California, Berkeley, USA
A. A. Sulaimon, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar, Malaysia

eun.lee@univie.ac.at
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eun.lee@univie.ac.at
Eun Young Lee Johannes Novotny
•

Michael Wagreich

Subsidence Analysis
and Visualization
For Sedimentary Basin Analysis
and Modelling

123
eun.lee@univie.ac.at
Eun Young Lee Michael Wagreich
Faculty of Earth System Department of Geodynamics
and Environmental Sciences and Sedimentology
Chonnam National University University of Vienna
Gwangju Vienna
Korea (Republic of) Austria

Johannes Novotny
Department of Computer Science
Brown University
Providence, RI
USA

ISSN 2509-3126 ISSN 2509-3134 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Petroleum Geoscience & Engineering
ISBN 978-3-319-76423-8 ISBN 978-3-319-76424-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76424-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018943257

© The Author(s) 2019

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eun.lee@univie.ac.at
Preface

In the study of sediments and sedimentary basins, subsidence analysis provides an

essential step to understand basin evolution through geologic time and space.
Quantifying techniques have been developed and applied in many basin research
projects to evaluate total, tectonic and thermal subsidence, used also as a prereq-
uisite for basin modelling. Recent studies have applied visualization techniques to
understand regional subsidence contexts and trends, which have proved that the
dimensional visualization of the basin subsidence is highly helpful to gain insight
into basin evolution. Two authors, Eun Young Lee and Michael Wagreich, have
conducted multiple research projects in the field of ‘basin analysis and modelling’.
And they have applied various research techniques including subsidence analysis to
understand basin architecture and evolution. The other author, Johannes Novotny,
is a specialist in field of ‘scientific visualization’ and our main collaborator in the
development of BasinVis 1.0, a MATLAB®-based software for subsidence analysis
and visualization.
In this book, we show how geoscience and computer science can be effectively
combined in advanced basin analysis, especially in terms of basin subsidence.
‘Subsidence analysis and visualization for sedimentary basin analysis and mod-
elling’ introduces techniques for quantitative subsidence analysis and visualization
with example applications. We hope this book will guide students in undergraduate
and postgraduate courses and will provide helpful information for research projects
and industrial applications.

Gwangju, Korea (Republic of) Eun Young Lee

Providence, USA Johannes Novotny
Vienna, Austria Michael Wagreich

eun.lee@univie.ac.at
Acknowledgements

We thank our colleagues for fruitful discussions on data collection, quantitative data
analysis and numerical visualization. Special thanks go to Michelle Kominz who
inspired Eun Young Lee to gain better and deeper insights to subsidence analysis
and to Erik Wolfgring who helps to understand quantitative paleo-bathymetry
analysis and apply it to subsidence analysis. We also thank David H. Laidlaw for
his advice and feedback on visualization techniques. Michael Wagreich thanks
Peter Faupl, who inspired him to step into the vast field of basin analysis, and
Hanns Peter Schmid and Monika Hölzel for cooperations in related projects. This
work was supported by the Korea Research Fellowship program funded by the
Ministry of Science and ICT through the National Research Foundation of Korea
(2017H1D3A1A01054745) and by a part of the project titled ‘International Ocean
Discovery Program’, funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea.

vii

eun.lee@univie.ac.at
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Sedimentary Basin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Basin Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Subsidence Mechanisms and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Subsidence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Total Subsidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 Total Subsidence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.2 Compaction Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.3 Dip-Slip Fault Backstripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1.4 Example Study of Total Subsidence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2 Tectonic Subsidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.1 Tectonic Subsidence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.2 Paleo-Bathymetry and Sea-Level Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2.3 Flexural Backstripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.4 Tectonic Subsidence Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.5 Example Study of Tectonic Subsidence Analysis . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 Post-Rift Thermal Subsidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3.1 Post-Rift Thermal Subsidence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3.2 Example Study of Post-Rift Thermal Subsidence
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 29
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 31
3 Subsidence Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 Interpolation Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3 Example Study of Subsidence Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.3.1 Background of Case Study Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.3.2 Visualization of Sedimentary Infill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

ix

eun.lee@univie.ac.at
x Contents

3.3.3 Visualization of Total and Tectonic Subsidence . . . . . . . . . 46

3.3.4 Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

eun.lee@univie.ac.at
About the Authors

Eun Young Lee has conducted multiple research projects in the field of ‘basin
analysis and modelling’ in Korea, Austria and Australia. The projects have applied
various research techniques including subsidence analysis to understand basin
architecture and evolution. She was a shipboard scientist of International Ocean
Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 356 and Expedition 369, and is currently
conducting projects to understand sedimentary basins, offshore Western Australia.

Johannes Novotny is a specialist in scientific visualization and has participated in

geological and medical research projects in Austria and the United States. Recently
he has explored the use of virtual reality systems in scientific data analysis.

Michael Wagreich has worked as a sedimentologist and stratigrapher in academy.

He has conducted several research projects on basin analysis and basin modelling,
especially using subsidence analysis. Other recent research focuses on past sea-level
changes and the Anthropocene.

xi

eun.lee@univie.ac.at
Chapter 1
Introduction

Abstract Sedimentary basins are regions formed due to tectonically induced long-
term subsidence of the Earth’s surface in which sediments accumulate to consider-
able thickness and be preserved for relatively long geological time periods. Many
basins have been intensively explored not only for the academic research, but also
for commercial interest (e.g. hydrocarbon) found in sedimentary basins. A sedimen-
tary basin can be understood fully with consideration of all factors influencing on
basin evolution. Therefore the basin analysis is a field to investigate synthetically
basin formation and evolution, and modelling techniques are needed to integrate the
results dimensionally in time and space. Basin architecture results mainly from the
interplay between sediment supply and accommodation, and the generation and spa-
tial distribution of accommodation are controlled mainly by subsidence. Subsidence
analysis of a sedimentary basin is very important to restore basin evolution through
geologic time and investigate basin forming mechanisms. There are three types of
subsidence analysis according to what causes the subsidence; total subsidence, tec-
tonic subsidence and thermal subsidence.

Keywords Sedimentary basin · Basin analysis · Basin modelling · Subsidence

1.1 Sedimentary Basin

Sediments and sedimentary rocks provide not only one of the critical interface of
the geosphere with the biosphere and the anthroposphere but also provide large
parts of major natural resources like groundwater and hydrocarbon. Sediments are
covering a considerable range of the continental and oceanic crusts, and the major
accumulations occur in sedimentary basins and on continental shelves. Sedimentary
basins are regions formed due to tectonically induced long-term subsidence of the
Earth’s surface in which sediments accumulate to considerable thickness and be
preserved for relatively long geological time periods (Einsele 2000; Miall 2000;
Leeder 2011; Allen and Allen 2013). Geographically, ‘basin’ is used for a depression
or lowland area in the land surface or seafloor and sediment infilling is not necessarily
counted, however, in this book, ‘basin’ is refers sedimentary basin.
© The Author(s) 2019 1
E. Y. Lee et al., Subsidence Analysis and Visualization,
SpringerBriefs in Petroleum Geoscience & Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76424-5_1

eun.lee@univie.ac.at
 2 1 Introduction

To understand the internal framework of a basin, infilling sediments are doc-

umented regarding sedimentological petrology, stratigraphic profile, depositional
facies and its relationship to faulting and structural deformation, which is arranged
in basin architecture. It results mainly from the interplay between the volume and
grain size of sediment supply and the rate of generation and spatial distribution of
accommodation (Fig. 1.1). The sediment supply depends on the erosion rate and size
of sediment source (provenance). The generation of accommodation is controlled
by tectonic subsidence and uplift, global sea-level change (eustasy) and compaction.
Therefore the interplay of these various factors in space and time provides crucial
evidences to indicate tectonical and environmental conditions which occurred during
the basin’s evolution, which dictate type, size, lifespan and sediment preservation
potential of sedimentary basins (Leeder 2011; Ingersoll 2012; Allen and Allen 2013).
There are a number of sedimentary basins on Earth’s crust, which form in diverse
geological settings. Classification and nomenclature of the basins are based on char-
acteristics of a basin at the time of sedimentation (Ingersoll 2012) and modern basin
classifications based on plate tectonics have been proposed by Dickinson (1974,
1976), Bally and Snelson (1980), Klemme (1980) and Kingston et al. (1983a, b).
In consideration of plate tectonic activity, sedimentary basins are classified mainly
in terms of three criteria; the type of crust which the basin lies, the position of
the basin relative to plate margins and the type of plate interaction occurring dur-
ing sedimentation (Miall 2000). Ingersoll (2012) suggested detailed classification of
sedimentary basins based on divergent, intraplate, convergent, transform, hybrid and
miscellaneous settings (Table 1.1).

sediment
supply

accommodation

ts
in fil lin g se di m en
Subsidence
Fig. 1.1 Concept of sedimentary basin

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