3D Modeling of (Visean-Serpukhovian) Mississippian Mounds, Indian Wells, Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico
Mississippian strata in the Sacramento Mountains provide a classical exposure of Carboniferous Waulsortian mounds. The Mississippian Lake Valley ramp that crops out along the western escarpment of the Sacramento Mountain shows a range of mounds size and architecture depending on the position along the ramp profile. This study focuses on reconstructing in 3 dimensions the architecture of several small up-dip mound complexes within a 2.5 x 1.5 Km window. The mounds show at least three phases of mainly aggradational growth. Coeval with mound growth, flank debris and allochtonous debris have been funneled through the inter-mound depressions, resulting in a complex interfingering and onlapping architecture. The location of the mounds is controlled by antecedent topography, created by possible deformation and erosion of the older distal ramp deposits, whereas the mound architecture is a direct result of increasing available accommodation. Combining field mapping, ground base LiDAR and ground penetrating radar (GPR) in several canyons that expose the mound system along mostly strike perpendicular directions allows 5 stratigraphic surfaces to be reconstructed in three dimensions. These surfaces form the framework for a 2 x 1.5 Km geocellular model, which is populated with facies information using standard kriging and Gaussian simulation.
Architectural Elements: Modern and Outcrop Analogs for Modeling Reservoirs I (SEPM/AAPG)
2007 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition (April 1 - 4, 2007) Technical Program