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Clinoforms and Clinothems: Fundamental Elements of Basin Infill
  • E-ISSN: 1365-2117

Abstract

[Abstract

Seismic‐reflection data show that most deepwater (>200 m water depth) basins are filled by sand and mud dispersed across clinoformal geometries characterized by gently dipping topsets, steeper foresets and gently dipping bottomsets. However, the entire geometry of these ubiquitous clinoforms is not always recognized in outcrops. Sometimes the infill is erroneously interpreted as “layer cake” or “ramp” stratigraphy because the topset‐foreset‐bottomset clinoforms are not well exposed. Regional 2‐D seismic lines show clinoforms in the Lower to Middle Jurassic Challaco, Lajas, and Los Molles formations in S. Neuquén Basin in Argentina. Time equivalent shelf, slope and basin‐floor segments of clinoforms are exposed, and can be walked out in hundreds of metres thick and kilometres‐wide outcrops. The studied margin‐scale clinoforms are not representing a continental‐margin but a deepwater shelf margin that built out in a back‐arc basin. Lajas‐Los Molles clinoforms have been outcrop‐mapped by tracing mudstones interpreted as flooding surfaces on the shelf and abandonment surfaces (low sedimentation rate) in the deepwater basin. The downslope and lateral facies variability in the outcrops is also consistent with a clinoform interpretation. The Lajas topset (shelf) is dominated by fluvial and tidal deposits. The shelf‐edge rollover zone is occasionally occupied by a 40–50‐m‐thick coarse‐grained shelf‐edge delta, sometimes incising into the underlying slope mudstones, producing oblique clinoforms expressing toplap erosion on seismic. A muddy transgressive phase capping the shelf‐edge deltas contains tidal sandbodies. Shelf‐edge deltas transition downslope into turbidite‐ and debris flow‐filled channels that penetrate down the mud‐prone Los Molles slope. At the base‐of‐slope, some 300m below the shelf edge, there are basin‐floor fan deposits (>200 m thick) composed of sandy submarine‐fan lobes separated by muddy abandonment intervals. The large‐scale outcrop correlation between topset–foreset–bottomset allows facies and depositional interpretation and sets outcrop criteria recognition for each clinoform segment.

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Shelf edge and base of slope facies variability in Lajas‐Los Molles outcrops in Neuquen Basin. (a) Vertical logs with possible facies changes across the shelf edge (three types) and the base of slope (two types). (b) Cross section with possible facies changes encountered along the clinothem components in the Lajas ‐ Los Molles. (c) Clinoform height changes under different accretion rates of the basin floor or shelf.

]
Basin Research © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists © 2019 The Authors. Basin Research © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists
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2019-09-03
2024-04-18

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Criteria for recognizing shelf‐slope clinoforms in outcrop; Jurassic Lajas and Los Molles formations, S. Neuquén Basin, Argentina
Basin Research 32, 279 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12395
/content/journals/10.1111/bre.12395
/content/journals/10.1111/bre.12395
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Cuyo Group; foreland basins; Neuquen Basin; passive margins; sediment flux; sedimentology; stratigraphy

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