Laurentian Basin - Complete

General

Country:	Canada
Location:	Offshore, NorthAtlantic Ocean
Block:	Laurentian Deep Rift Extensional Basin
Coordinates:	N 45°04′24.82″ / W 56°06′45.95′’
Year:	Shot in 1984–1985
By:	Geophysical Services Inc and Western Geophysical, Reprocessing in 2006
Data Summary:	Full stack 2D Data (29 lines) after applying a pre-stack time migration
Size:	3.60 GB (uncompressed), 2.00 GB (compressed)
License:	Seismic data: © Department of Natural Resources Canada. All rights reserved. Distributed under the conditions specified in GEOGRATIS LICENCE AGREEMENT FOR UNRESTRICTED USE OF DIGITAL DATA, found at http://www.geogratis.ca/geogratis/en/licence.jsp Derived attributes and survey setup: © dGB Earth Sciences. Distributed freely through

Please click here to view the Laurentian Basin location in Google Earth.

Contributors

Geological Features

Extensional and strike slip tectonics, salt tectonics, Mesozoic rifting, passive margin (late triassic-early jurassic), regional ‘base Cretaceous’ unconformity, seaward prograding Tertiary wedges, erosional features arising from the interplay of sea level changes with the St. Lawrence River; other features like channels, delta systems and canyons are also present, a good data for sequence stratigraphic interpretation.

Applicable Techniques

Attributes

• Spectral Decomposition
• Energy
• Similarity

Plugins

• Dip-Steering
• Neural Networks
• SSIS

Full survey Description

Survey Location, (by Hogg & Enachescu, OTC 2007)

The Laurentian Basin covers an area of approximately 60,000 square km in shallow to deep water between the island of Newfoundland and province of Nova Scotia and the extensional strike slip domain of the Southern Grand Banks. A thick Mesozoic-Cenozoic succession (nearly 20km) downlaps onto oceanic crust to the south and onlaps the pre-rift Paleosozoic sediments on the basin’s northern flank. The basin shows a strong imprint of extensional and salt tectonics, similar to the Sable Sub-basin, from which oil, gas and condensate have been produced [2]. As petroleum exploration was restricted in the area until the recent resolution of international and inter-provincial boundary disputes, only one well has been drilled in the basin so far. This well (Bandol #1) was drilled in the French territory, and although no well report or logs have yet been released by the operators. It is reported in the media that it was a dry hole [1, 2]. In preliminary work based on a regional seismic grid, the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) estimated that the basin could contain recoverable resources of 8–9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 600 to 700 million barrels of oil at an average expectation [1].
From a tectonic-stratigraphic point of view, the basin is located at the intersection of the Mesozoic Scotian Shelf extensional margin and the Southern GrandBanks extensional/strike slip margin, which dictates that elements of both systems will be observed in its structural style and stratigraphy.

The basin’s petroleum systems includes the possibility of Mesozoic reservoirs being sourced by Paleozoic source rocks.

Seismic section, (Courtesy of GSC; reprocessed by ARCIS)

Basin Analogues: For play assessment of the deepwater slope it is necessary to employ information from worldwide analogues because at the time of the assessment there were no discoveries in deepwater depositional systems, only one dry well Bandol #1 in Laurentia Basin and three existing dry wells in the neighboring Nova Scotia deepwater slope (Shelburne G-29, Shubenacadie H-100 and Tantallon M-41) [3]. Hence, unlike the global analogues, proven petroleum systems on the Laurentia Slope remained unknown. The continental margin off Nova Scotia and Laurentia Basins have long been known as the definitive Atlantic-style passive margin; a pull-apart margin followed by thermal sag and a prograding shelf with a carbonate bank, major river delta system, and a mobile salt substrate. The three major analogue passive margins are all Atlantic facing, namely the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), offshore Brazil, and offshore West Central Africa, all which have enjoyed recent and continued deepwater success.

Survey regional location, (by Hogg & Enachescu, OTC 2007)

Survey parameters

2D Survey lines, (by Natural Resources Canada)

This dataset consists of 29 lines, representing 3100 km of 2D multi-channel seismic data.

Available Data

Seismic Data:

• 1 Original_Seismic
• 2 Background SteeringCube
• 3 Dip Steered Median Filter
• 4 Fault Enhancement Filter

References

[1] Phonse Fagan, A.J. & Michael Enachescu, 2007 “The Laurentia Basin Revisited”. Let it Flow 2007 CSPG,GSEG Convention, Download PDF

[2] John R. Hogg & M.E. Enachescu, 2007 “Exploration Potential of the Deepwater Petroleum Systems of Newfoundland and Labrador Margins”. 2007,OTC 19053 Download PDF

[3] Arthur G. Kidston, Dave E. Brown, Brenton M. Smith, Brian Altheim, “Hydrocarbon Potential of the Deepwater Slope, Offshore Nova Scotia Canada”. AAPG, Barcelona 2003 Download PDF

[4] Petroleum geology of the continental margin south of the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, offshore eastern Canada Authors: Maclean, B C; Wade, J A Source Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology vol. 40, no. 3, 1992; pages 222–253 Alt Series Geological Survey of Canada, Contribution Series 49091 Year 1992

[5] Late Paleozoic to Cenozoic history of the offshore Sydney Basin, Atlantic Canada Vincenzo Pascucci, Martin R. Gibling, and Mark A. Williamson Can. J. Earth Sci. 37(8): 1143–1165 (2000) | doi:10.1139/cjes-37–8−1143 | © 2000 NRC Canada

[6] Geology of the continental margin of eastern Canada Author Keen, M J (ed.); Williams, G L (ed.) Source Geological Survey of Canada, Geology of Canada Series no. 2, 1990; Alt Series Geological Society of America, Geology of North America Series VOL I-1 Year 1990

[7] Scotian Shelf / Plate-forme Néo-Écossaise AuthorRoss, D I; Lewis, C F M; Howie, R D; Cant, D; Bates, J L (ed.) Source Geological Survey of Canada, East Coast Basin Atlas Series , 1991;Year 1991