Location: Steamboat Springs CO

Mike Boyles: Retired Shell Oil; Affiliate Faculty, Colorado School of Mines.

This course contrasts two very different clastic shoreline systems by studying two sets of outcrops that were deposited at approximately the same time, about 100km (62 miles) away from each other. One set was deposited by classic river-feed, wave dominated delta systems and the other set had depositional strike-feed systems. The wave dominated deltas are common reservoirs in many basins. However, the less common strike-feed systems have a very different stratal architecture, which can result in the development of significant stratigraphic traps. Participants will develop competence in understanding clastic shoreline and shelf systems and applying sedimentology and sequence stratigraphic concepts to build depositional models and predict facies distributions.

A 8-day field trip comprising a mix of classroom lectures (10%) and field time (lectures and exercises 90%). The course begins in Craig, Colorado, and ends in Steamboat, Colorado. Participants fly in and out of Hayden, Colorado.

Advanced. Geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers working on fluvial / deltaic exploration and production projects. This course is especially relevant for people working reservoirs that were deposited under a tidal influence. The material is presented with minimal jargon so that reservoir engineers can get the maximum benefit of the material.

This class requires a MODERATE exertion level. Scrambling over rock outcrops and steep sections will be required, but most hikes would be considered moderate. The longest hike is approximately 3.2km (2 miles). Outcrops are at elevations of 1300–2000m (3900–6000 ft). Weather conditions in NW Colorado can vary from warm and dry to cold and wet, with an early fall temperature range of 6–25°C (42–78°F). Transport will be in SUVs on paved and unpaved roads.

You will learn to:

1. Evaluate facies associated with wave dominated deltas, tidal shelf deposits and the often-under-recognized strike-fed tidally influenced shoreline deposits.
2. Compare depositional dip and strike facies variations within a wave dominated delta complex at the regional scale.
3. Distinguish deltaic distributaries from incised valley deposits associated with an unconformity.
4. Identify facies and subsurface geometries of isolated, tidally dominated shelf reservoirs and understand possible links to older shoreline deposits and processes that controlled genesis of these stratigraphic traps.
5. Use sequence stratigraphic principles to distinguish sequence boundaries, flooding surfaces, transgressive surfaces of erosion and maximum flooding surfaces.
6. Begin to use the concepts of shoreline stacking patterns to better predict lateral continuity of shoreline systems.
7. Make interpretations of reservoir systems from subsurface data based on the techniques practiced in the field.