Source to sink: Sediment volume partitioning in time and space - Biannual report VISTA august-2009

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Project director:           William Helland-Hansen, Department of Earth Science, UiB

Post-doc scholar:          Tor Oftedal Sømme

Project duration:          2009-05-01 to 2009-08-12

Division head:              Lasse Amundsen

Project number:           6256

Objective

Ancient outcrop and subsurface sedimentary units will always be associated with many uncertainties in terms of morphology and lateral extent as the most proximal part of the sedimentary transport system rarely is preserved in the stratigraphic record, and as the remaining part of the system is only partly preserved and typically lacks good 3D coverage. Modern field analogue studies are thus important for the understanding of ancient source-to sink sedimentary system, as they may provide 3D control on sediment partitioning within relatively short time frames, allowing better constraints on the forcing factors controlling sediment dispersal. The objective for this work is to combine such modern analogues together with forward stratigraphic modelling get a better understanding on sediment transport and dispersal in source-to-sink systems.

Status

The project was initiated in April this year. At this stage we have started an analogue comparison study of sub-modern rift basins to gather data on rift characteristics and morphology, and sediment dispersal in shallow- and deep-marine depositional environments. Modelling work will hopefully start later this fall.