Book Cliffs (Wasatch Plateau)

Wasatch Plateau, Utah
Measuring section by rope in the Castlegate Formation.
Wasatch Plateau, Utah

Collaborators:

  • Gary Hampson, Imperial College London.

  • Hiranya Sahoo, Delft University of Technology.

  • Nahid Gani, Western Kentucky University.

Objectives:

  • Understand sequence stratigraphy and facies architecture along depositional-strike of shallow-marine, coastal-plain, and fluvial strata.

  • Develop predictive models of sandbody geometry, distribution and connectivity along depositional-strike for shallow-marine, coastal and fluvial reservoirs and plays.

Significance:

  • Current sequence stratigraphic models deal with stratal packages almost exclusively along depositional-dip. There exists under-appreciated potential for along-strike variability.

  • Much of the current and projected global hydrocarbon production remains in siliciclastic shallow- and marginal-marine reservoirs.

  • Many reservoirs are characterized by complex arrangement of sandbodies. Their efficient development and management requires robust geological understanding, preferably in 3D.

Dataset:

  • High-quality outcrops, photomosaics, Lidar, cores, wireline logs, and GPR (ground penetrating radar).

An airplane was used to acquire hundreds of digital photos along the entire Wasatch Cliff (~120 km) to create high-resolution photomontages.

3D perspective view of all channelized sandbodies of the entire Blackhawk Formation. Sandbodies were mapped by integrating lidar and outcrop data (Sahoo and Gani, 2015).