Location: Pyrenees

Rene Jonk: Director, ACT-Geo Consulting and Training; Honorary Professor, University of Aberdeen.

Well-exposed outcrops of the Pyrenean Foreland Basin (PFB) in northern Spain offer a unique opportunity for source-to-sink analyses across thrust and foreland basin settings. This course demonstrates regional linkages of continental to marine environments and teaches fundamentals of play-scale reservoir, source and seal mapping and prediction. We utilize 3D outcrop models, detailed biostratigraphic data and subsurface examples to enhance learning through making maps and predictions. The course presents sequence stratigraphic models across continental, shelfal and deep-water settings in order to understand the external controls on sediment flux from the proximal to distal environments.

A 6-day field course, based in the Pyrenees, with the itinerary dependent on the technical objectives of the group and timeframe. 60-80% of the time will be spent in the field, making active observations and undertaking field exercises, in combination with some classroom exercises and lectures as well as the option for viewing core.

Intermediate. The course is specifically designed for reservoir engineers, geologists and geophysicists interested in analysing a range of clastic reservoir types from a variety of depositional settings. The field course will examine the reservoir attributes of a wide range of sand-prone deposits focusing on the reservoir quality and property distribution as well as larger scale correlation and gross architecture of distinct stratigraphic units. In addition, play-scale prediction of reservoir, source and seal elements will be covered and play-based evaluation techniques will be discussed and practiced.

This class requires an EASY exertion level. Access to the outcrops is easy with many being road cuts. The longest walk is approximately 3 km over scrubby land. The field area sits at an altitude of up to 1000 m and the weather can be warm with daily highs over 25 degrees Celsius.

You will learn to:

1. Review facies associations in siliciclastic depositional systems.
2. Predict external controls on sediment flux from continent to basin.
3. Study the effects of compressional tectonics and the interaction of tectonics and sedimentation.
4. Assess proximal to distal environments of deposition (EoD) and link them in space and time.
5. Employ sequence stratigraphic models to continental, shelf and deep-water settings.
6. Build stratigraphic frameworks across various scales and EoD.
7. Predict occurrence of basin-scale play elements.
8. Place local interpretations into regional context for predictions away from well control.
9. Examine where sediment is stored in shelf environments, as well as when and how sediment is transported to deep water.