Submarine slope systems - offshore African continental margin

Our research here has focused on the Tunisian offshore, and more recently the Nile Delta.

We currently have a PhD and Postdoc working on this area to characterise the evolution and quantification of offshore channel systems and mass transfer complexes, as part of a wider regional study off the offshore North African continental margin.

Current projects

  • Characterisation of Cretaceous Depositional Systems along the Atlantic Passive Margin, Morocco

    An interdisciplinary and multi-scale research project to characterize and evaluate the evolution of the Cretaceous depositional systems Onshore Morocco along the Atlantic Seaboard, extending offshore along the Morocco passive margin. To improve understanding of the depositional systems, facies modeling and basin evolution, with the implications for petroleum systems and modeling reservoirs, source distribution , generation and migration, and seal. The research will undertake detailed analysis of onshore outcrops to develop improved sedimentological models and establish depositional facies distributions through time, provenance, diagenesis and improved chronostratigraphy.

    This project commenced in January 2014, and 1st results have been delivered to the sponsors. The project will be integrated with analysis of available offshore subsurface data provided by ONHYM, including an offshore 2D seismic grid and access to well data and reports. NARG has singed an MOU with ONHYM to cooperate ion this study, building on the very strong links over the last 10 years. Additional data will be provided by sponsoring companies, to assist in mapping the offshore in order to constrain the source to sink models, and assess the evolution of the Cretaceous system and controls on sedimentation (salt tectonics) and basin evolution.

    Research team comprises 6 PhDs (Tim Luber, Angel Arantegui, Tu Anh Ngyeun (Schlumber Scholarship), and Leonardo Muniz Pichel (Brazilian Gov Scholarship) based in Manchester and Remi Charton in TuDelft. Academic staff supervision from Prof Jonathan Redfern, Prof Giovanni Bertotti and Prof Joep Storms from Manchester, TU Delft and Amsterdam (VUA).

  • Completed projects

  • Deepwater Slope Channel and Mass Flow Complexes, Nile Delta.

    This research was undertaken by PhD student Victoria Catterall, supervised by Prof Jonathan Redfern and Prof Rob Gawthorpe. PostDoc researcher Dr Dorthe Hansen (now Statoil) also contributed to the work. This project studied deepwater depositional processes, controls and evolution of the Nile Delta, Egypt, in the context of submarine channel evolution, and generation and interaction with mass-transfer-complexes. It utilized an extensive 3D database provided by BG Group. This work was undertaken within a sequence stratigraphic framework, with the results providing new and important quantification of the slope system evolution in terms of architecture, structure and morphology.

    Publications:

    Catterall, V., Redfern, J., Gawthorpe, R.L., Hansen, D.M & Thomas, M.H.F (2010), Architectural Style and Quantification of a Submarine Channel-Levee Systems located in a structurally complex area: Offshore Nile Delta, Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 80; no. 11; pp. 991-1017; DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2010.084

    PhD thesis:

    2010: Dr Victoria Catterall (now with ExxonMobil): Evolution and morphology or deepwater channels, offshore Nile Delta, Egypt. NERC/ BG Group Case funded.

  • Nummidian Flysch depositional system and provenance.

    The Numidian Flysch is the most widespread tectono-stratigraphic unit in the western Mediterranean. It outcrops in the Alpine nappe belt, in southern Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily and southern Italy. In Sicily and Tunisia it is an Oligocene to mid-Miocene flysch-type deposit sourced from the north-African passive margin and deposited into an east-west trending foreland basin. This study was supervised by Dr Stephane Bodin and Prof Jonathan Redfern, and undertaken as a PhD by Myron Thomas (now Shell). The study focused on outcrops in northern Sicily and Tunisia, evaluating the sedimentology and provenance within the context of the basin as a whole. Special emphasis is placed upon the controls on deposition and provenance of the clastic supply, which until this study were largely unknown. Future work is intended to extend this study to the west into Algerian and Morocco.

    Publications:

    Thomas, M. F. H., Bodin, S., Redfern, J., Irving, D. H. B. (2010). "A constrained African craton source for the Cenozoic Numidian Flysch: Implications for the palaeogeography of the western Mediterranean basin." Earth Science Reviews 101, 1. pp 1-23.

    Thomas, M.F.H., S. Bodin, J. Redfern Comment on European provenance of the Numidian Flysch in northern Tunisia'by Fildes et al.(2010) Terra Nova 22 (6), 501-503

    Lubeseder S., J. Redfern, L. Petitpierre, S. Fröhlich. (2011). Stratigraphic trapping potential in the Carboniferous of North Africa: developing new play concepts based on integrated outcrop sedimentology and regional sequence stratigraphy (Morocco, Algeria, Libya). Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference series 2011, v. 7, p. 725-734, doi: 10.1144/?0070725

    PhD Thesis:

    2011: Dr Myron Thomas (now with Shell International): Sedimentology of the Nummidian Flysch - NARG Sponsored.

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