Lessons from a modern carbonate sandbody – A personal experience of comparative sedimentology

Abstract

Abstract The notion that examination of modern environments can help one better decipher ancient deposits does not seem so unusual, but this view was incrementally developed through decades of studies that have shown just that. Presented here is a brief example of comparative sedimentology with emphasis placed on the lessons learned from the study of a modern ooid sandbody that heightens one's ability to describe and interpret analogous subsurface settings. Core transects and surface sediment mapping in the Joulters sandbody of Great Bahama Bank illustrate the three‐dimensional characteristics of an upward coarsening and shallowing cycle and highlight the internal complexity of a sandbody through time and space. This modern example graphically highlights difficulties in interpretation and correlation of grainstone cycles in analogous subsurface platform carbonate reservoirs.

Keywords

• depositional cycle
• Great Bahama Bank
• heterogeneity
• ooid
• stratigraphy