Clastic Shelf Depositional Environment: Facies, Facies Sequences and Economic Values

Abstract

Perhaps more than any other single environment, the continental shelf typifies the dynamic ‘input/output’ aspect of the earth surface processes. Clastic sediment introduced onto the shelf must bypass the various nearshore sediment ‘traps’, such as estuaries, bays, lagoons, tidal flats, etc. Once on the shelf, a complex mixture of tidal, wave, oceanic and density currents disperse the sediments, allowing some proportion to ‘escape’ over the shelf edge, into the deep ocean basins.

This paper offers examination of Facies and Facies Sequences of Shelf Depositional Environment, under the two classifications: Tide-Dominated and Stormwave-Dominated Shelf Deposits. Mention is also made of the economic importance of the environment, with special emphasis on its petroleum prospectivity. Some petroleum provinces producing from shelf depositional environments were equally touched.