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1 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; present address: Chevron, 1500 Louisiana St., Houston, Texas 77002; guzofski{at}chevron.com
2 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; present address: Chevron, 6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd., San Ramon, California 94583
3 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
4 École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine/Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, Nancy, 54500, France; present address: Chevron, 6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd., San Ramon, California 94583
5 Chevron, 6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd., San Ramon, California 94583
6 Unocal E&E Technology, 14141 Southwest Fwy, Sugar Land, Texas 77478; present address: Chevron, 1500 Louisiana St., Houston, Texas 77002
7 Unocal E&E Technology, 14141 Southwest Fwy, Sugar Land, Texas 77478; present address: Chevron, 1500 Louisiana St., Houston, Texas 77002
Chris A. Guzofski is member of the Structural Geology Team at the Chevron Energy Technology Company. He received his B.S. degree (1997) in geology from Bates College, his M.S. degree (2000) in geodynamics from Pennsylvania State University, and his Ph.D. (2007) in structural geology from Harvard University. His research interests include 3-D restoration and the mechanics and kinematics of extensional and compressional fault-related folds.
Joachim P. Mueller is a structural geologist at the Chevron Energy Technology Company in San Ramon, California. He graduated in geology from the University of Karlsruhe in 1993 and received his doctorate from the Free University of Berlin in 2000. He joined the Structural Geology and Earth Resources group at the Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow in 2004. He studies the tectonic evolution of fold and thrust belts and investigates the development and implementation of 3-D structural restoration methods.
John H. Shaw is the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department Chair and Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology at Harvard University. He leads an active research program in structural geology and geophysics, with emphasis on petroleum exploration and production methods. He received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in structural geology and applied geophysics and was employed as a senior research geoscientist at Texaco's Exploration and Production Technology Department in Houston, Texas. His research interests include complex trap and reservoir characterization in fold and thrust belts and deep-water passive margins. He heads the Structural Geology and Earth Resources Program at Harvard, an industry-academic consortium that supports student research in petroleum systems.
Pierre Muron is a research scientist and software developer in the Reservoir Simulation Development Team of Chevron Energy Technology Company. He completed his undergraduate studies in numerical geology and then received a Ph.D. in geosciences from Nancy-Université in France in 2005. His current technical interests include development and deployment of software solutions for reservoir modeling and simulation.
Don Medwedeff received his B.S. (1981) and M.S. degrees (1983) and his Ph.D. (1988) in geology from the University of Michigan, Queen's University, and Princeton University, respectively. He was with ARCO from 1987 to 2000 and has been with Chevron since. His work has focused on the development and application of structural analysis and modeling methods and tools.
Frank Bilotti is currently working in deep-water exploration for Chevron Nigeria/Mid-Africa and was most recently the Structural Geology Team leader at Chevron Energy Technology Company. He received a Ph.D. in structural geology from Princeton University in 1997 and a B.S. degree in geology and mathematics from the University of Miami. Prior to Chevron, he worked as a structural consultant in Texaco Exploration Technology and at Unocal E&E Technology.
Carlos Rivero received a Ph.D. in structural geology from Harvard University in 2004 and an M.S. degree in geology in 2002. He also holds a geological engineering degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. He worked as a structural geologist with Unocal E&E Technology before joining the Structural Geology Team of Chevron Corporation. His technical interests include the integration of kinematical, mechanical, and forward modeling of contractional and extensional systems with basin analysis to mitigate exploration and production risks associated with reservoir presence, source rock maturation, and hydrocarbon migration and charge.
ABSTRACT
We use a new, mechanically based volumetric structural restoration tool to investigate the mechanics of fault-related folding using natural examples imaged in three-dimensional (3-D) seismic data. The restoration technique is based on a finite element approach that simultaneously restores folding and faulting while allowing rock properties to spatially vary during restoration. We apply these techniques to two types of structures, detachment and shear fault-bend folds, where mechanical layering is a significant factor in their development. Our examples include a detachment anticline from the Caspian Sea and a shear fault-bend fold from the deep-water Niger Delta, both of which contain syntectonic growth horizons that help to constrain the restorations. Restorations of the detachment fold most closely match displacement fields specified in the kinematic forward models when materials are defined as incompressible and rigid, yet the variation of mechanical strength in restorations is perhaps more compatible with the growth of natural structures as recorded by syntectonic growth strata. This analysis shows that the restorations of the detachment fold favor a combination of both kink-band migration and limb rotation folding mechanisms. Numerical simulations of the growth shear fault-bend fold also closely match the displacement field prescribed by the kinematics of shear fault-bend fold models when weak basal units and bedding-plane slip surfaces, enabling flexural slip, are incorporated in the model. The results demonstrate that these techniques can be used to provide full 3-D restorations that closely match established two-dimensional kinematic theories, yet allow constraint of 3-D displacement fields and strain patterns in complex structures.
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  C. K. Zahm and P. H. Hennings Complex fracture development related to stratigraphic architecture: Challenges for structural deformation prediction, Tensleep Sandstone at the Alcova anticline, Wyoming AAPG Bulletin, November 1, 2009; 93(11): 1427 - 1446. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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