Controls on depositional cyclicity: interplay of global and local processes in the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

Award is for a project to analyze multichannel seismic data acquired in the offshore Cantebury Basin, on the eastern margin of the South Island of New Zealand. Interpretation and mapping of the high resolution multichannel seismic profiles and integration with existing commercial and deep-penetration academic multichannel seismic profiles will allow evaluation of the relative roles of eustacy, tectonics, sediment supply and currents on stratigraphic development. The Cantebury Basin comprises a southern hemisphere counterpart to the New Jersey margin: both representing siliciclastic margins. The analysis will define the 3-D sequence geometries to reveal spatial and temporal changes in sequence geometry, and evaluate the relative importance of local versus global controls by using forward stratigraphic modeling to reproduce observed geometries.