Highlights—Clinoform Geometries and Sediment

Clinoforms are fundamental sequence and seismic stratigraphic elements, reflecting information on sediment distribution in space and time to and across shelf margins. In this contribution, Gong et al. quantitatively explore relationships between clinoform-growth styles and sand- and sediment-budget partitioning across shelf margins of late Miocene-Quaternary clinoforms of the northwestern South China Sea. The results illustrate that clinoform-growth styles represent distinct stratal stacking patterns and sediment distribution. For example, downward-prograding shelf-margin clinoforms with low angles of growth trajectories (Gct) and low clinoform height (Hc) favor partitioning volumes of sediment into deep-water areas, thus are fronted by sand-rich submarine fan systems. In contrast, steeply upward aggrading shelf-margin clinoforms with high Gct and high Hc favor storage of volumes of sediment on shelf margins, and hence include mud-dominated mass-transport systems downdip of shelf breaks. Gct and Hc therefore increase linearly with sediment budget stored on shelf margins, but decrease linearly with sand- and sediment-budget partitioning into deep-water areas, provided similar sediment-supply conditions through time. The results suggest that clinoform-growth styles are thus good predictors of sand- and sediment-volume partitioning across shelf margins.

Growth styles of shelf-margin clinoforms: prediction of sand- and sediment-budget partitioning into and across the shelf by Chenglin Gong, Yingmin Wang, Ronald J. Steel, Cornel Olariu, Qiang Xu, Xiangnan Liu, and Qianhui Zhao

Highlights—Dueling pore systems from bioturbation

Bioturbation is an important post-depositional process that can alter sedimentary textures, porosity, and permeability. Here, Baniak et al. examine the influence of burrow geometry and connectivity on porosity and permeability within the Upper Jurassic Ula Formation of the Norwegian Central Graben. Spot permeametry data and numerical modeling of this shoreface succession illuminate relationships among burrow morphology, bioturbated volume, and burrow connectivity. These data provide insights for a conceptual framework for assigning bulk permeability to reservoir media, useful to better characterize hydrocarbon deliverance through bioturbated sandstone reservoirs with dual porosity and dual permeabeability systems.

Petrophysical characterization of bioturbated sandstone reservoir facies in the Upper Jurassic Ula Formation, Norwegian North Sea, Europe by Greg M. Baniak, Murray K. Gingras, Beverly A. Burns, and S. George Pemberton

Highlights—Thriving Devonian microbialite reefs

The abundance of reefs and the biota that they include vary through geologic time, punctuated by periods of rapid change. To understand the dynamics of such change, Matysik et al. document the structure, dimensions, and spatial patterns of microbial-dominated patch reefs in mixed carbonate-siliciclastic environments on the northern margin of Gondwana during the Early Devonian “crisis” in metazoan reef development. Despite different composition, these reefs show close similarities in shape and spatial arrangement with present-day coral patch reefs, suggesting comparable controls. Additionally, the strata show a close relation between metazoans and microbialites in reefs and reef-associated strata, illustrating that microbialites can compete successfully, even in the presence of metazoans, given elevated nutrient supply and elevated temperatures.

Composition and morphology of Early Devonian microbial and metazoan patch reefs: Qasr Member of the Jauf Formation, northwestern Saudi Arabia by Michał Matysik, Khalid Al-Ramadan, and Robert Riding

Highlights—Why is the Holder tight? The impact of early diagenesis

Diagenesis represents the progressive alteration of sediment and rock; it is never simple. To examine diagenesis, many studies of carbonate successions focus on detailed petrographic study and bulk geochemical analyses. To test the hypothesis that multiple episodes of early diagenesis (subaerial exposure) are recorded as multi-phase calcite cements, Wasson and Lohmann examine petrographic and geochemical character of the Holder Formation (Pennsylvanian, New Mexico, USA). This study integrates field observations of the phylloid-algal and microbial mounds with microsampled geochemical data from some of the key features, and clarifies the detailed diagenetic and developmental history of the unit. The results illustrate that most primary and secondary porosity of the units was occluded within the first 500 m of burial, by Early Permian time, and highlight how early diagenesis can markedly impact carbonate strata. [Ed. Note: the Osmonds knew this in 1972.)

Isotopic and elemental evidence for meteoric alteration of a Pennsylvanian phylloid-algal mound, Holder Formation, New Mexico, U.S.A. by Matthew S. Wasson and Kyger C. Lohmann

Highlights—Prograding Wave-Dominated Deltas

Upon transport to the ocean, sediment can be transported further by wave-induced longshore sediment transport in delta–shoreface depositional systems. Nonetheless, the nature of relations between sediment supply and wave reworking is poorly understood, yet has implications regarding shoreline and stratigraphic evolution. Using a numerical model of shoreline dynamics, Li et al. quantify the relation between wave-induced longshore sediment transport and shoreline orientation under conditions of steady sea level, and apply the insights to a case study of the Po delta-shoreface system. The results reveal that a decrease in delta progradation rate can in part be considered as an autogenic response to steady wave conditions offshore. They conclude by suggesting that wave-induced longshore sediment transport can markedly impact deltaic and adjacent shoreface shoreline progradation rates, and as such, has sequence stratigraphic implications as well.

The impact of wave-induced longshore transport on a delta–shoreface system by Liang Li, Dirk-Jan R. Walstra, and Joep E.A. Storms