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Estimating stratal completeness of carbonate deposition via process-based stratigraphic forward modeling

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Abstract

Hiatuses are ubiquitous in stratigraphic records at various temporal scales, but they cannot be easily identified and quantified owing to the lack of adequate methods in determining the duration of hiatuses or stratal completeness. Here a process-based stratigraphic forward modeling (SFM) approach was used to effectively estimate the completeness of carbonate strata in three dimensions and at basin-scale. By using information derived from both spatial and temporal domains in the SFM outputs for five grid locations (pseudo wells) under different depositional settings, we were able to delineate basin-wide hiatuses of various temporal scales and determine their durations and stratal completeness quantitatively. The stratal completeness appears to be controlled by sea level changes, depositional environments, carbonate growth rates and tectonic subsidence patterns in various ways.

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Acknowledgements

Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive comments. This work was supported by Chinese National Key R & D Project (Grant No. 2019YFC0605501), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA14010401), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41821002), and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant No. ZR2018BD018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China

    Jianliang Liu & Keyu Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Deep Oil and Gas, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China

    Jianliang Liu & Keyu Liu

  3. Laboratory for Marine Mineral Resources, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Keyu Liu

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  1. Jianliang Liu
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Correspondence to Keyu Liu.

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Liu, J., Liu, K. Estimating stratal completeness of carbonate deposition via process-based stratigraphic forward modeling. Sci. China Earth Sci. 64, 253–259 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9660-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9660-8

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