Sequence stratigraphy

Name: Tayyab Fiaz

Assignment Topic: System Tracts

Date: 11/JULY/2020

Description:
Describe various system tracts of type-I and Type-II sequences. Also describe the
development of low stand system tract on ramp margin. Which additional system
tracts could develop in basins?

System Tracts:
 System tracts, a three-dimensional depositional unit defined by its
boundaries and internal geometry.
 Three system tracts commonly occur in single cycle of sea level change.

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High stand(highland) system tractsdevelopsduring times of high sea level low

Stand(lowland) system tracts develops during times of relatively low sea level
Transgressive System tractswhich is between high and low land system tracts
develops at times of changing sea level.

Figure 1

Type 1 and Type 2 Sequences (Old Literature):

 In the older sequence stratigraphic literature (especially in the 1980s and
1990s), there was considerable discussion of type 1 and type 2 sequences,
concepts that have largely since been abandoned or ignored.
 This is unfortunate, because understanding the differences between these
also helps understanding the relationship between Para sequences and
sequences.
 Type 1 and 2 sequences differ in what happens at the shoreline during a
eustatic fall in sea level.

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Type 1 Sequence:
 In a type 1 sequence, there is a relative fall in sea level at the shoreline
because the eustatic fall in sea level is faster than the rate of subsidence at
the shoreline.
 As a result, rivers typically will incise, and a surface of forced regression
will form on a wave-dominated shelf.
 In short, the shoreline experiences a fall in sea level in a type 1 sequence.
 All of the discussions so far in this online guide have been about type 1
sequences.
 A type 1 sequence developed on a shelf margin, adapted from Van Wagoner
et al. (1990).
 No falling-stage systems tract is indicated, in part because Van Wagoner did
not recognize this as a separate systems tract (he included it in the HST), and
in part because they are thin and often destroyed by subsequent erosion at
the sub aerial unconformity.

Type 2 Sequence:

 In a type 2 sequence, the rate of eustatic fall is not greater than the rate of
subsidence at the shoreline, and as a result, the shoreline continues to
experience a relative rise in sea level.
 Because of this, progradational Para sequence stacking continues, although
it may be accelerated owing to lower rates of accommodation.
 Similarly, rivers do not incise at the shore, and a surface of forced regression
does not form seaward of the upper shore face.
 In short, the shoreline does not experience a fall in sea level in a type 2
sequence.
 A type 2 sequence developed on a shelf margin, adapted from Van Wagoner
et al. (1990).
 The architecture of a type 2 sequence differs from a type 1 in several ways.

I. First, it will lack incised valleys.

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II. Second because there is no relative fall at the shoreline, no surface of

forced regression will develop, and therefore, a type 2 sequence will
lack a falling-stage systems tract.
III. Third, no low stand systems tract will be present, and the equivalent
strata are called the shelf-margin systems tract (SMST).

Figure 2

System Tracts:
Genetically associated stratigraphic units that were deposited during specific
phases of the relative sea-level cycle (Posamentier, et al, 1988). These units are
represented in the rock record as three-dimensional facies assemblages. They are

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defined on the basis of boundaries, position within a sequence, and Para sequence
stacking pattern (Van Wagoner et al., 1988). Five are recognized but, historically,
other systems tracts have been defined.

Figure 3

Five of the system tracts are:

1. Falling stage systems tract (FSST): -

 It includes all the regressional deposits that accumulated after the onset of a
relative sea-level fall and before the start of the next relative sea-level rise.
 The falling stage systems tract is the product of a forced regression
 The FSST lies directly on the sequence boundary and is capped by the
overlying low stand system tract sediments.
 A variety of Para sequence stacking patterns can be produced including:
downward stepping prograding clinoforms, stranded Para sequences, and
mass flow deposits in distal areas.
 Each of these Para sequence stacking patterns depends on the depositional
profile, the rate of sediment supply, and the rate of relative sea-level fall.
The FSST was first fully defined by Plint and Nummedal, (2000).

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 This systems tract has also been termed the early low stand systems tract
(ELST) (Posamentier and Allen, 1999).
 The fall is evidenced by the erosion of the sub aerially exposed sediment
surface up dip and the formation of a diachronous sequence boundary that
caps the high stand systems tract (HST).
 On seismic data, the upper boundary is the first definable horizon that on
laps the FSST, but when well logs and outcrops are used this boundary is
instead recognized as the first marine- flooding surface that overlies the
FSST. Coincidentally it is often marked by a time high stand revilement
surface overlain by a sediment lag.

Figure 4

Low stand systems tract (LST):

 It includes deposits that accumulate after the onset of relative a sea-level
rise.

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 This systems tract lies directly on the upper surface of the falling stage
systems tract and is capped by the transgressive surface formed when the
sediments on lap onto the shelf margin.
 Stacking patterns exhibit [back stepping, on lapping, retro gradational,
aggrading clinoforms that thicken up dip].
 Low stand systems tract sediments often fill or partially infill incised
valleys that were cut into the high stand systems tract, and other earlier
deposits, during the FSST.
 This systems tract has also been termed the late low stand systems tract
(Posamentier and Allen, 1999).

Figure 5

Transgressive systems tract (TST):

 It comprises the deposits that accumulated from the onset of coastal
transgression until the time of maximum transgression of the coast, just prior
to the renewed regression of the HST.

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 The TST lies directly on the transgressive surface (TS) formed when the
sediments on lap the underlying LST and is overlain by the maximum
flooding surface (mfs) formed when marine sediments reach their most
landward position.
 Stacking patterns exhibit back steppingon lapping retro gradational
clinoforms that thicken landward. In cases where there is a high sediment
supply the Para sequences may be aggradational.

Figure 6

High stand systems tract (HST):

 The progradation deposits that form when sediment accumulation rates
exceed the rate of increase in accommodation space.
 This HST constitutes the upper systems tract of a stratigraphic sequence, and
lies directly on the maximum flooding surface (mfs) formed when marine
sediments reached their most landward position.
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 This systems tract is capped by a sequence boundary.

 Stacking patterns exhibit prograding aggrading clinoforms that thin upward.

Figure 7

Regressive System Tract:

 Regressive systems tract was defined by Embry and Johann Essen (1992).
 In this definition it lies above a transgressive systems tract and is overlain
by the initial transgressive surface of the overlying transgressive systems
tract.
 This complete sequence is known as a transgressive-regressive sequence (T-
R sequence).
 The sediments of this systems tract include the High stand System Tract of
Posamentier and Allen (1999).

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Figure 8

Ramp Margin:
 Ramp margin are characterized by relatively shallow water depths, where
storms and currents processes can operate much of the area of deposition.
 Depositional angle are less than 1 degree
 The response of depositional system in a ramp setting to the relative sea-
level change is therefore different from the shelf break margin.

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Ramp Margin Depositional Sequence:

I. Low Stand:
 The low stand systems tract is deposited during the early stages of sea-level
rise.
 The inner part of the ramp is no longer erosional and the water level starts to
rise in the incised valleys.
 The geometry of the strata in the outer part of the ramp is progradational,
becoming aggradational as the rate of sea-level rise increases and the
shoreline stops moving seawards and becomes stationary.
 Transgressive surface, transgressive systems tract, maximum flooding
surface, high stand.
 The processes and patterns of sedimentation during these stages of rising sea
level are essentially the same as for the shelf-break margin depositional
sequence.

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Figure 9

Additional system tracts that could develop in basins:

Additional system tracts that can be develop in a basin are;
i. Sea-Level Low stand
ii. Forced Regressive and Low stand Shore faces
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a. Sea-Level Low Stand:

 In the petroleum industry, the sea-level low stand model is the perceived
norm for explaining deep-watersands.
 An example is the attribution of reservoir sands in the Kutei basin in the
Makassar Strait (Indonesian seas) to a low stand of sea level (Saller et al.,
2006).
 The Kutei basin's location is frequently affected by earthquakes, volcanoes,
tsunamis, tropical cyclones, monsoon floods, the Indonesian through flow,
and M2 baroclinic tides (Shanmugam, 2008a).
 These daily activities of the solar system (e.g. earthquakes, meteorite
impacts, tsunamis, and cyclonic waves) do not come to a halt during sea-
level low stands.
 These short-term events are the primary triggering mechanisms of deep-
water sediment failures.

b. Forced Regressive and Low stand Shore faces:

 In permanently subaqueous settings, a SB may be excavated at maximum low
stand prior to burial during progradation of low standshore faces, or low
stand deltas.
 Whereas a RSE summarizedthe details of forced from an iconological
perspective, largely based onobservations of the Lower Cretaceous Viking
Formation in the Kaybob and Judy Creek fields.
 From a facies perspective, sharp-based shore face successions generated in
these two scenarios are virtually identical.
 Both record allocyclic shoreline progradation with a concomitant decrease in
accommodation space, although low stand shorelines may experience some
addition of accommodationduring the latest stages of low stand due to a
reduction in the rate of sea-level fall.
 Both shore face types also overlie erosional discontinuities cut by wave
erosion, when facies that were originally deposited below fair-weather wave
base were brought into the zone of wave attack due to relative sea-level fall.

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Figure 10

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