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Depositional facies of the subsurface Neogene Surma Group in the Sylhet Trough of the Bengal Basin, Bangladesh: record of tidal sedimentation

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Abstract

The Bengal Basin, in the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, contains a thick (± 22 km) early Cretaceous-Holocene sedimentary succession. The Neogene succession in the Sylhet Trough of the basin reaches a thickness of more than 6 km of which the Surma Group contains important sandstone reservoirs. Lithologically, the group consists of a succession of alternating shales, siltstones, sandy shales and sandstones, with minor conglomerates. This research work is a sedimentological analysis of the subsurface Neogene succession encountered in the petroleum exploration wells in the Sylhet Trough of the Bengal Basin. Detailed lithologic logs of the cores, based on considering texture and sedimentary structure, permit a subdivision into eight lithofacies, e.g., a shale-dominated facies, interbedded fine sandstones and mudstones, ripple-laminated sandstones, parallel-laminated sandstones, massive sandstones, cross-bedded sandstones, cross-bedded sandstones with pebble/granule lag and conglomerates. Characteristic sedimentary structures of the Surma Group, such as flaser-, wavy- and lenticular-bedding, bipolarity of ripple cross-stratification, evenly laminated sand/silt-streaked shales, reactivation surfaces within cross-bedded sandstone sets, mud-drapes on foreset laminae and herringbone cross-stratification as well as small-scale vertical sequences (several fining-upward cycles) are diagnostic for tidal influence. On the basis of the lithofacies associations and prograding character of the deposits revealed from the electrofacies associations, the Surma Group sediments have been interpreted as representing deposits of tide-dominated deltaic depositional setting.

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Acknowledgments

This research work is modified from a part of the Doctoral thesis of the first author (Rahman 1999). We are grateful to Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (BOGMC) and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Company Ltd. (BAPEX) for giving permission to investigate cores and wire line logs of the Surma Group of the Sylhet Trough. The authors wish to thank Dr. Hornung Jens and Dr. Harald Stollhofen for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Saver, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    M. Julleh Jalalur Rahman

  2. Institute for Geology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Peter Faupl

  3. Department of Geology, Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    M. Mustafa Alam

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  1. M. Julleh Jalalur Rahman
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  2. Peter Faupl
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  3. M. Mustafa Alam
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Correspondence to M. Julleh Jalalur Rahman.

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Rahman, M.J.J., Faupl, P. & Alam, M.M. Depositional facies of the subsurface Neogene Surma Group in the Sylhet Trough of the Bengal Basin, Bangladesh: record of tidal sedimentation. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 98, 1971–1980 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-008-0347-7

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