Forward Simulation and Calibration of Fluvial Dominated Delta Deposit in the North Sea

A 2D forward model driven by advection-diffusion equation in plane and linear stack model in vertical direction was designed to simulate fluvial-dominated delta system in North-Sea area. Two techniques are applied as an attempt to close the gap between stratigraphic forward simulation and observation. First, the discharge model for basin (DMB) was utilized to generate a reasonable initial guess of discharge and sediment concentration parameters. Discharge was described as a function of catchment area, volatility, and the precipitation that falls within the area. Sediment concentration is calculated based on a relationship of liquid discharge, large-scale relief and basin temperature. Second, an integrated inverse workflow was applied to calibrate the forward model to hard data. Geomorphological information extracted from seismic data, porosity, thickness and stacking pattern extracted from well data are utilized to build objective function. The simulation result was converted to acoustic impedance profile and compared with seismic inversion result. Remarkable resemblance between forward simulation and seismic inversion had been found. This research demonstrates the potential of integrated quantitative geological and geophysical interpretation and paves the road for future stratigraphic modeling optimization. It also provides some clues of reducing gap between geological concepts and geophysical observation.