Clinoforms: The link between deep water- and shallow water deposits

Supervision: William Helland-Hansen (UiB), Snorre Olaussen (UNIS), Frode Hadler-Jacobsen (Statoil) and Erik P. Johannesen (Statoil)

Project funding: Statoil ASA.

Clinoforms, with various attributes, are formed by sediments entering a standing body of water. Despite the fact that there is a certain hierarchy of clinoforms formed at different scales (from shoreline clinoforms to continental margin clinoforms), no formal subdivision system exists. The aim of this project is to establish a quantitative database of different clinoform parameters, including gradients, shelf width, shelf basin relief (SBR), smoothness, curvature and shoreline/shelf edge trajectories, to do a generic study of clinoforms at the different scales. The controlling factors for generating clinoforms of different geometries, with upstream processes (delta), slope processes (canyons/slope failure) and downstream processes (basin floor fans), and the linkage between these, are key issues that will be addressed in this project. A wide range of different data will be applied, with the establishment of a quantitative database largely based on existing data from the literature and 2D seismic data, and case studies from 3D seismic data and outcrop data. In addition, stratigraphic forward modeling will be applied to simulate clinoform growth within different depositional settings.