Quantitative morphometric analysis of a deep-water channel in the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand
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Abstract: The morphological changes of deep-water channels have an important influence on the distributions of channel sand reservoirs, so it is important to explore the morphological change process of deep-water channel for the exploration and development of deep-water oil and gas. Based on a typical sinuous Quaternary channel (Channel I) in the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, a variety of seismic interpretation techniques were applied to quantitatively characterize the morphological characteristics of the Channel I, and the relationships between the quantitative parameters and the morphological changes of the Channel I, as well as the controlling factors affecting those morphological changes, were discussed. The results are as follows: (1) in the quantitative analysis, six parameters were selected: the channel depth, width, sinuosity, and aspect ratio (width/depth), the channel swing amplitude (λ) and the channel bend frequency (ω); (2) according to the quantitative morphological parameters of the channel (mainly including three parameters such as channel sinuosity, ω and λ), the Channel I was divided into three types: the low-sinuous channel (LSC), the high-sinuous channel (HSC), the moderate-sinuous channel (MSC). U-shaped channel cross-sections developed in the LSC, V-shaped channel cross-sections developed in the HSC, including inclined-V and symmetric-V cross-sections, and dish-shaped channel cross-sections developed in the MSC; (3) the morphological characteristics of the LSC and MSC were related to their widths and depths, while the morphology of the HSC was greatly affected by the channel width, a change in depth did not affect the HSC morphology; (4) the morphological changes of the Channel I were controlled mainly by the slope gradient, the restricted capacity of the channel and the differential in fluid properties.
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Key words:
- Quaternary /
- deep-water channel /
- geometrical morphology /
- quantitative analysis /
- Taranaki Basin /
- New Zealand
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Figure 1. Location maps of the study area. a. Deep-water Taranaki Basin situated in western New Zealand (after Li et al. (2017b)); the location of the 3D seismic study area is represented by the white rectangle. b. Variance map of the study area obtained from 3D seismic data that clearly shows the overall morphology of the Channel I. c. Bathymetric map of the area where the Channel I is located. d. Chronostratigraphy, generalized facies, and relative sea level relationships spanning the north−northwestern to south−southeastern regions of the Taranaki Basin (afterRotzien et al. (2014)). FM: formation.
Figure 2. Schematic drawing showing the methods adopted in this study to identify and measure the morphological parameters of the deep-water channel. a. Plan view showing the morphological parameters including the channel true length (TL), channel straight length (SL), and the swing amplitude of channel, in which the sinuosity was calculated as the ratio of the channel TL to the SL. b. Cross-sectional view showing the method adopted to measure the channel’s width and depth. c. Stereogram showing the method used for measuring the slopes of the seafloor. α: seafloor slope gradient, in which the calculation formula of the seafloor slope gradient was as follows: α=arctan (H/L).
Figure 3. Statistical analysis of the quantitative characteristic parameters of the Channel I in the study area. a. Subsea depth of the Channel I. b. Sinuosity of the Channel I. c. Depth of the Channel I. d. Width of the Channel I. e. Aspect ratio (width/depth) of the Channel I.
Figure 4. Interval distributions of the quantitative characteristic parameters of the Channel I: statistical analyses of the sinuosity of the Channel I (a), width of the Channel I (b), depth of the Channel I (c), and aspect ratio (width/depth) of the Channel I (d).
Figure 5. Variance maps showing the different types of geometrical morphology of the Channel I in plan view. a. Overall morphology of the Channel I. b. Low-sinuous channel. c. High-sinuous channel. d. Moderate-sinuous channel. e. Variation in swing amplitude of channel bend. The box presents the different channel forms, and the numbers denote the bends of the Channel I.
Figure 6. Types of seismic cross-sectional morphologies of the Channel I. a. Locations of the seismic cross-sections are indicated by the solid black lines, the numbers are the channel cross-section labels, and the solid lines represent the various geometrical morphologies of the channel cross-sections: U-shaped (b), inclined V-shaped (c), symmetrical V-shaped (d), and dish-shaped (e).
Figure 7. Schematics of the spatial distributions of the different cross-sections of the Channel I. The specific location of four channel cross-sections geometrical morphology, such as U-shaped (a), inclined V-shaped (b), symmetrical V-shaped (c), and dish-shaped (d), in the whole Channel I. e. Spatial distributions of the overall channel cross-sections, where the numbers signify the sequence of the channel cross-sections. f. True morphology of each cross-section. From upstream to downstream, the depth of the Channel I gradually transitions from being narrow and deep to wide and shallow.
Figure 8. Relationships between the quantitative parameters of the Channel I: relationships between the sinuosity and the depth (a), width (b), aspect ratio (width/depth) (c). d. Relationship between the width and depth of the Channel I.
Figure 9. Schematic diagram of the average seafloor slope gradient of the three sections of the Channel I. In a, the seafloor slope gradient of the low-sinuous channel (LSC) is 3.91°, that of the high-sinuous channel (HSC) is 3.31°, and that of the moderate-sinuous channel (MSC) is 2.34°.
Figure 10. Root mean square (RMS) amplitude attribute map of the Channel I. From upstream to downstream of the channel, the high amplitude reflections change to low amplitude reflections. In the low-sinuous channel and high-sinuous channel, the position of the axis of the channel is marked by high amplitude reflections, while in the moderate-sinuous channel, the axis of the channel is delineated by low amplitude reflections. The red and yellow positions indicate high amplitude reflections, and the green and blue positions indicate low amplitude reflections.
Figure 11. Schematic diagram of a channel crevasse in the moderate-sinuous channel of the Channel I. a. Root mean square (RMS) amplitude attribute map. b. Red-Green-Blue (RGB) colour attribute map. c. Schematic illustration of the formation of a channel crevasse. The black curve represents the present-day channel, the red dotted line represents the paleochannel, and the blue circle represents the crevasse position. The specific location is shown in Fig. 10.
Figure 12. Seismic cross-sections of the levees in each section of the Channel I. Two seismic cross-sections are selected for each part of the Channel I. a. low-sinuous channel: a1−a'1, a2−a'2. b. high-sinuous channel: b1−b'1, b2−b'2. c. moderate-sinuous channel: c1−c'1, c2−c'2. The seismic cross-sections are on the left, and the interpretation diagrams are on the right. The locations of the seismic cross-sections are shown in Fig. 10.
Table 1. Quantitative parameters of the Channel I in different morphological sections
LSC MSC HSC Sinuosity 1.0–1.2 1.2–1.5 1.5–4.0 Width/m Max-W 555.58 336.90 580.58 Min-W 159.05 51.96 37.37 A-W 323.77 196.12 215.43 Depth/m Max-D 35.15 19.66 24.18 Min-D 19.97 8.74 11.97 A-D 25.33 13.23 16.48 Aspect ratio Max-AR 35.43 110.16 43.22 Min-AR 7.11 10.55 2.09 A-AR 14.39 32.52 14.45 $\text{λ} $/m Max- $\text{λ} $ 596.81 525.10 1 050.23 Min- $\text{λ} $ 395.72 357.00 296.10 A- $\text{λ} $ 512.47 424.80 675.49 $\omega $ 0.53 1.17 2.20 Note: A is the average, AR is the aspect ratio, W is the width of the Channel I, D is the depth of the Channel I, $\omega $ is the channel bend frequency,and $\text{λ} $ is the swing amplitude of Channel I. LSC: low-sinuous channel; MSC: moderate-sinuous channel; HSC: high-sinuous channel. 
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Table 2. Geometrical morphology characteristics of the Channel I on seismic cross-sections
Seismic facies External geometries Developed location Characteristics Seismic cross-section Interpretation a U-shaped middle and upper position of the channel The gravity flow flowing through the channel has large scale, strong energy and strong undercut erosion ability. “Gull wing” levee structure is mostly developed in this area. 
b inclined V-shaped bend position of the channel The scale of gravity flow decreases, the fluid energy decreases, and the undercutting erosion ability of the fluid is strong. Asymmetric levee structures are mostly developed in the channel in this area, and the concave bank slope of the levee is steep and the convex bank slope is slow. 
c symmetrical V-shaped the straight section of the channel The scale of gravity flow is small, the fluid has medium to weak energy intensity, and the undercut erosion ability of the fluid is weakened. Symmetrical V-shaped cross-sections are mostly developed in relatively straight channel sections. 
d dish-shaped terminal position of the channel The scale of gravity flow is very small and the fluid energy is weak. The channel is in a non-restrictive environment. The levee structure is basically undeveloped, and the bottom of the channel is relatively flat. 
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