Structural styles and stratigraphy of Terra Nova Oil Field, Grand Banks
Mesozoic evolution of the Grand Banks involved several episodes of crustal extension that created a suite of northeast-southwest-trending half-grabens. The dominant period of extension was late Callovian to Aptian, when the crust of the central Grand Banks failed along a gently dipping down-to-the-west shear zone. Listric basin-bounding faults sole at this detachment zone. One of these faults, the Murre fault, bounds the very deep Jeanne d'Arc basin. Cross-basin transfer faults accommodated different amounts and rates of extension and resulted in the conspicuous offset pattern and funnel-shaped geometry of the Jeanne d'Arc basin. The Terra Nova oil fields is located where basin-trending faults are intersected by a transfer fault. The stratigraphy of the Terra Nova oil field is a direct response to this tectonic and structural framework. Subtle faulting associated with incipient rifting resulted in the deposition of oil-prone argillaceous limestones during the Oxfordian-early Kimmeridgian. During the late Kimmeridgian the climax of rifting occurred, which caused floods of coarse clastic material to be shed from the rift shoulders. These sands were deposited in a fan-delta system and form the major reservoir of the Terra Nova oil field. Dispersal patterns were controlled by the structural salient formed by the transfer fault. A depositional limit of the reservoir mirrors the transfer fault and comprises part of the oil-trapping mechanism of the field.
- OSTI ID:
- 6544767
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-880301-
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Geology of Terra Nova oil field, Grand Banks, Newfoundland
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020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
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GEOLOGIC FAULTS
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