Contents

• Introduction • Sea-level change

• Sedimentology – concepts
• Fluvial environments
• Deltaic environments
• Coastal environments
• Offshore marine environments
• Sequence stratigraphy – concepts
• Marine sequence stratigraphy
• Nonmarine sequence stratigraphy
• Basin and reservoir modeling
• Reflection

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

What is a model?

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

What is a model?
• Models are expressions of our ideas how things work
• Conceptual models (qualitative models)
• Physical models (experimental models)
• Flume-operated simulations of sedimentologic or stratigraphic
phenomena at scales ranging from bedforms to basins
• Mathematical models (computer models)
• Deterministic models (physically-based or process-based) have
one set of input parameters and therefore yield one unique
outcome
• Stochastic models have variable input parameters, commonly
derived from probability-density functions (pdf’s), and therefore
have multiple outcomes; as a consequence model runs must be
repeated many times (realizations) and subsequently ‘averaged’
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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• Forward models simulate sets of processes and responses in a

system that has specified (assumed) initial boundary conditions
(e.g., the evolution of a sedimentary basin given an initial
configuration)
• Inverse models use observations as a starting point and aim
to estimate initial boundary conditions and combinations of
processes and responses that have operated to produce the
observed conditions (i.e., flip side of forward models)

• What is the goal of modeling in sedimentary geology?

• Understanding processes and responses in sedimentary systems
(experimental and process-based models)
• Prediction of sedimentary architecture and stratigraphy (primarily
stochastic models)

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• Architectural models typically simulate specific depositional

environments (e.g., alluvial architecture); different approaches
are possible, involving different kinds of equations:
• Physical
• Empirical
• Probabilistic

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• Stratigraphic models are widely used to simulate basin-scale

stratal patterns (e.g., sequence stratigraphy):
• In geometric models the sediment surface is represented by one or
more surfaces with predetermined geometry
• Many models are based on a diffusion equation that relates rates of
sediment transport to topographic slopes

Slideshow
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 Animation 1
Animation 2

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• A classical approach in sedimentologic/stratigraphic modeling

has been to start from first principles (i.e., basic, small-scale
processes of sediment transport) and multiply this to the desired
spatial and temporal scale (‘upscaling’)
• The outcomes of this approach have been very disappointing
(i.e., upscaling is a very complicated procedure)
• There is no law of nature that says that “complexity +
complexity = greater complexity”!

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• Reservoir characterization is the analysis of subsurface

sediments or sedimentary rocks from the perspective of fluid
flow through porous media, including issues related to resource
recovery (e.g., groundwater, hydrocarbons)
• The net-to-gross ratio (proportion of permeable units) is one of
the most basic parameters in reservoir studies
• The connectedness between permeable units is another
important parameter

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• Many reservoir models operate on the scale of sedimentary

architecture; they are mostly stochastic
• Object-based models simulate the distribution of objects,
defined by specified geometries, in 3D space; simulations are
usually constrained by well data
• Geostatistical models predict sedimentary facies at unvisited
sites, based on the quantified spatial facies variability derived from
well data (e.g., sequential indicator simulation)
• Conditioning model output to observations is more easily done
in stochastic models, but process-based models have the
advantage that they tend to provide sedimentologically more
realistic output

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• Many reservoir models operate on the scale of sedimentary

architecture; they are mostly stochastic
• Object-based models simulate the distribution of objects,
defined by specified geometries, in 3D space; simulations are
ususally constrained by well data
• Geostatistical models predict sedimentary facies at unvisited
sites, based on the quantified spatial facies variability derived from
well data (e.g., sequential indicator simulation)
• Conditioning model output to observations is more easily done
in stochastic models, but process-based models have the
advantage that they tend to provide sedimentologically more
realistic output

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• Many reservoir models operate on the scale of sedimentary

architecture; they are mostly stochastic
• Object-based models simulate the distribution of objects,
defined by specified geometries, in 3D space; simulations are
usually constrained by well data
• Geostatistical models predict sedimentary facies at unvisited
sites, based on the quantified spatial facies variability derived from
well data (e.g., sequential indicator simulation)
• Conditioning model output to observations is more easily done
in stochastic models, but process-based models have the
advantage that they tend to provide sedimentologically more
realistic output

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• The challenge for experimental models is to mimic real-world

conditions as well as possible (scaling); this becomes
increasingly difficult with increasing spatial and temporal scales
(compare bedforms vs. sedimentary basins)
• Grain size (e.g., how to simulate clays?)
• Grain properties (e.g., how to simulate cohesion of sediment
grains?)
• Fluid mechanics (e.g., how to keep the Froude number
reasonable?)
• Experimental models are increasingly used to simulate
sedimentary architecture and basin-scale stratigraphy
• One important outcome of experimental modeling is the
recognition of non-linear responses

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Animation 1 Animation 2
Animation 3

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 Basin and reservoir modeling

• The challenge for experimental models is to mimic real-world

conditions as well as possible (scaling); this becomes
increasingly difficult with increasing spatial and temporal scales
(compare bedforms vs. sedimentary basins)
• Grain size (e.g., how to simulate clays?)
• Grain properties (e.g., how to simulate cohesion of sediment
grains?)
• Fluid mechanics (e.g., how to keep the Froude number
reasonable?)
• Experimental models are increasingly used to simulate
sedimentary architecture and basin-scale stratigraphy
• One important outcome of experimental modeling is the
recognition of non-linear responses
Animation
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