Transgressive-Regressive Cycles in the Malay Basin: the Interplay of Tectonics and Sea Level Changes in a Silled Basin

Understanding the interplay of tectonics versus sea level changes in sedimentary basins has important economic implications. In rift/extensional basins, stratigraphic onlaps and pinchouts can form important hydrocarbon traps. Onlap plays develop on the basin margins during transgressions, whereas reworked/re-deposited shallow water sands and turbidites deposited during regressive events may form basinal plays. Transgressive-regressive cycles in a deforming rift (extensional) basin are strongly influenced by both eustatic sea level changes and tectonic subsidence/uplift. To explore for such plays it is important to understand how these major factors control sedimentation.