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THE TALARA FOREARC BASIN, NW PERU: DEPOSITIONAL MODELS OF OIL‐PRODUCING CENOZOIC CLASTIC SYSTEMS
Author(s) -
Carozzi A. V.,
Palomino J. R.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of petroleum geology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1747-5457
pISSN - 0141-6421
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-5457.1993.tb00728.x
Subject(s) - geology , forearc , sedimentary depositional environment , horst and graben , paleontology , structural basin , graben , clastic rock , tectonics , lineation , context (archaeology) , subduction , slumping , cenozoic , geomorphology
The Talara Basin is an unusual forearc basin, inasmuch as it displays many features which are not characteristic of such a tectonic context. These features apparently result from the basin's location at the intersection of the Amazonas Aulacogen, the Andean orogenic belt, and the subduction zone of the Peru‐Chile Trench. The history of the Talara forearc basin is dominated by exlensional rather than compressional tectonic activity, which reached a peak after the Eocene in association with low‐angle gravity slides. This tectonism began with a prolonged synsedimentary phase, which, during the Paleocene‐Eocene, generated a complex system of horsts and grabens bounded by major high‐angle normal faults trending NE‐SW and NW‐SE. Closely related to repeated phases of uplift and erosion in the eastern Andean source areas, this structural pattern controlled unusually thick and coarse clastic sedimentation during the Paleocene‐Eocene; a thickness of about 22,000 ft has been preserved, from which volcanics are essentially absent. The depositional environments were a series of interfering, transverse and longitudinal, deltaic and submarine fan systems, all of which contain distal portions in which organic‐rich marine shales were deposited. Given these conditions, it is not surprising that the Talara Basin has produced to date more than a billion (10 9 ) barrels of oil. Although oil is produced from these depositional systems both on‐ and offshore, the latter environment has been barely explored near the present‐day coastline, and is believed to have enormous potential for future development.