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Project Objectives
The goal of the Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis (GBDS) project is to produce and maintain a detailed, comprehensive and integrated synthesis of the depositional history of the entire Gulf basin. Critical to this synthesis is the abundance of released deep-water well data and published literature and well as seismic data loaned for project use. This project has created an extensive digital database that is dynamic and easily updated. The project continues to add new data and to update maps and interpretations to reflect the new information. The end products of each two-year research phase include a series of regional unit top, growth structures, isopach, sand thickness, and interpretive depositional systems maps for each of 33 regionally correlative genetic sequences. The gulf-wide sequence and depositional framework, in turn, provides participants a foundation for regional play definition, deep slope and basin reservoir prediction, and lease evaluation. Regional mapping of sequences from their fluvial/deltaic systems updip to their basinal equivalents, as interpreted on abyssal plain seismic lines, delineates sandy sediment transport axes from shelf to basin floor as a guide to reservoir prediction beyond and below existing well penetrations.
Education and Training
A number of graduate and undergraduate students work as research assistants on the project. They gain valuable knowledge and experience using the tools for compiling and interpreting the data.They use the geographic information system ArcGIS to manage our database and Landmark interpretation software to work with the digital seismic data. Our well logs come from different sources as the students search to find data. Rasters of logs are digitized to LAS files using Neuralog software. The experience improves marketability as students complete their educational experience and move into the employment world.
Project History
GBDS is an industry-supported project. The project is currently in its 14th phase and 27th year.