Polygonal faults: baffles or conduits for hydrocarbon migration?
Manual fault interpretation is particularly challenging when the fault throw is close to seismic resolution. A comprehensive and time intensive interpretation of crosslines, inlines and arbitrary sections is required to accurately interpret the vertical and lateral fault variations. To identify new exploration targets within such a complex area requires a more thorough and complete understanding of the structural geology.
Data courtesy of the Government of South Australia, Department of Energy and Mining.
The Cooper–Eromanga Basin contains a regionally extensive Cretaceous polygonal fault system.
The fault system contains vast numbers of small faults with no preferred direction of either strike or dip, meaning the pattern of faulting on one horizon will not persist to overlying or underlying horizons.
Understanding of this structure would have substantial implications for hydrocarbon migration pathway models and structural and stratigraphic models. Click here to read the case study in full.
