Adriana Crisostomo-Figueroa

Profile

Deep marine siliciclastic systems are volumetrically the most important sedimentary environment on the surface of the earth. Built by particulate gravity currents (turbidity currents, debris flows, hybrid flows), they can develop a complex array of depositional landforms, such as canyons, channels, with or without levees and semi- or unconfined depositional lobes, and the transitions between them. Turbidity currents must, by necessity bypass a proportion of the material suspended within them up to the point of terminal deposition, even if such bypass is over areas subject to net deposition. A priori, however, it can be difficult to predict whether any sectors of the flow pathway are subject to complete bypass. Yet such bypass must occur to ensure axial stratigraphic trapping of hydrocarbons along the feeder pathway.

The primary focus of this project is to evaluate the factors required to achieve axial bypass in deepwater settings, through a combined programme including seismic case studies of deep marine systems and the application of theoretical approaches that evaluate bypass potential on the basis of the gradient of the flow pathway and the suspended sediment grain size distribution, and will entail the development of a screening approach. A secondary goal will be to assess the role of secondary mechanisms (e.g. MTD emplacement; faulting) in the development of trap integrity.

Research interests

• American Association of Petroleum Geologists
• Deep marine systems and sediment transport
• Sandstone reservoir quality

Qualifications

• MSc Petroleum Reservoir Geoscience
• BEng Geophysics, Universidad Olmeca, Mexico

Research groups and institutes

• Institute of Applied Geoscience
• Geosolutions Leeds
• Sedimentology