APRIL 2024 LUNCHEON MEETING
Paul Mann of the University of Houston
presents:
The Final Frontier of Deepwater Exploration: The Continent-Ocean Transition Zone of Rifted-Passive Margins
11:30 AM Wednesday, April 17, 2024
at Willow Brook Country Club
3205 W Erwin St.
Tyler, TX 75702
Cost: $25 if you RSVP
$30 at the door if you do NOT reserve
Abstract
The objectives of this presentation are to summarize the crustal structure, tectonostratigraphy, and hydrocarbon potential of the deepwater, continent-ocean transition zone of both non-volcanic and volcanic, rifted-passive margins. Non-volcanic and volcanic rifted-passive margins have an aggregate length of 105,000 km, which is greater than either spreading ridges (65,000 km) or convergent plate boundaries (53,000 km). Rifted-passive margins are largely known from subsurface geophysical mapping because they are largely covered by an average sedimentary thickness of 3–4 km.
Because of their deep burial, rifted-passive margins are most directly known from deeply penetrating wells and seismic refraction and reflection subsurface mapping. The number of subsurface studies of rifted-passive margins worldwide has risen dramatically as improved geophysical imaging and academic and industry drilling of margins have increased. Rifted-passive margins host the greatest accumulations of deepwater sedimentary deposits on Earth, that lead to their hosting about two-thirds of all giant oil and gas discoveries worldwide. For that reason, rifted-passive margins remain major focus area for hydrocarbon exploration.
Key exploration-related questions related to rifted-passive margins and covered in this talk include: (1) Does a productive rifted-passive margin mean that its “look-alike” conjugate margin will also be productive? (2) Where should the deepwater limit of data acquisition and exploration be drawn at the deepwater, continent-ocean boundary - or along the even deeper-water area underlain by oceanic crust? (3) Should volcanic, rifted-passive margins be considered lower-priority exploration targets because magmatic activity has displaced or altered the normal deepwater sedimentary environments for organic-rich source rocks and highly porous and permeable reservoir rocks? and (4) Can petroleum systems develop seaward of the continent-ocean boundary on normal oceanic crust?
