Chapter 6 Sedimentary Basins

Sedimentary Basins
Eng. Mufazzal. S. Kabuli

Learning Outcome
• Basic Concepts and terms
• Mechanism of Basin Formation
• Classification of Sedimentary Basins

Sedimentary Basin
• A Sedimentary basin is defined as an area on the earth

surface where sediments have accumulated to greater
thickness than they have in adjacent areas
Sedimentary Basin
• Hydrocarbons commonly occur in sedimentary basins and are
usually absent on intervening areas of igneous and metamorphic
rocks.
• Most Sedimentary basins cover tens of thousands of square

Kilometers and may contain more than 5KM of sedimentary fill.
• Sedimentary basins may occur as a part of mountain chain,

beneath continental plain or in ocean and does not necessarily
refer to the surface topography above.
Mechanism of Basin Formation
Basins can form in four main ways:

1. Lithospheric Extension
2. Subduction
3. Crustal Loading due to sedimentation
4. Strike Slip tectonics
Lithospheric extension Mechanical stretching
• The motion of tectonic plates results in some areas where lithosphere is under
extension
• Horizontal stress within continental crust causes brittle fracture in the surface layers
while the stretching is accommodated by ductile flow in the lower part of the
lithosphere
• In the early stages of this extension, rifts form and are typically sites of continental
sedimentation.
Earth's lithosphere includes the crust and the uppermost mantle, which
constitutes the hard and rigid outer layer of the Earth
the upper part is brittle beacust it is cool while the lower part is ductile
because of the heat
Lithospheric extension
Basins Related to Lithospheric Extension
• Basins related to lithospheric extension can be classified as
follows:
1. Rift basins
2. Intracratonic Basins
3. Proto-oceanic troughs
4. Passive Margins
Rift Basins
• In regions of extension, continental crust fractures to produce rifts.
• These are structural valleys bound by extensional (normal) faults.
• The down-faulted blocks are referred to as graben and the up-faulted

areas as horsts.
• The controls on sedimentation in rift valleys are a combination of

tectonic factors, availability of material, pathways of sediment into the
basin, climate and water availability for transport in the rift basin.
Normal fault
Normal faults
Valley
Intracratonic basins
• Intracratonic basins are broad regions subsidence within a continental block
(craton) away from the plate margins or regions of orogeny
• The cratonic crust is typically ancient, and with low relief. The area may be very
large, but the amount of subsidence is low and the rate is very slow.
• When continental crust is extended it is thinned and this brings hotter mantle
material closer to the surface.
• Rifts are therefore areas of high heat flow.
• When rifting stops the geothermal gradient is reduced and the crust in the
region of the rift starts to cool, contract and sink resulting into the formation of
Ocean-Ocean or Ocean Continent
the older slab is alawys subducts
because it is cooled and has higher
Subduction density than the younger one
• Subduction occurs at convergent plate margins involving oceanic

lithosphere.
it has higher density
• The down going ocean plate descends into the mantle beneath
the overriding plate, which may be either another piece of
oceanic lithosphere or a continental margin
• The descending slab is heated as it goes down and partially melts.

is created because of the friction
between the two slabs
Subduction
open basin
Basins Related to Subduction
Basins related to subduction can be classified as follows:
1. Trenches
2. Fore arc Basins
3. Back arc Basins
Trenches
• Ocean trenches are elongate, gently curving troughs that form

where an oceanic plate bends as it enters a subduction zone
• Trenches formed along margins flanked by continental crust tend

to be filled with sediment derived from the adjacent land areas.
Fore arc Basins
• The inner margin of a fore arc basin is the edge of the volcanic arc and the
outer limit is the complex formed on the leading edge of the upper plate
• The main source of sediment to the basin is the volcanic arc and the
continental rocks
• Given sufficient supply of detritus a fore arc basin succession will consist of
deep-water deposits at the base, shallowing up to shallow marine, deltaic and
fluvial sediments at the top.
Back arc Basins
• Back arc basins form where the angle of subduction is steep and the rate of
subduction is greater than the rate of plate convergence.
Crustal Loading due to sedimentation
• When an ocean basin completely closes with the total elimination

of oceanic crust by subduction the two continental margins
eventually converge.
• Where two continental plates converge, it results in thickening of

the lithosphere and the creation of an orogenic belt, a mountain
belt formed by collision of plates.
Basins Related to Crustal Loading
• Basins related to crustal loading can be classified as follows:
Contenent -contenint collosions

1. Peripheral foreland Basins
2. Retro arc foreland basins oceanic contenint conversions
with low subdtion angle
Back arc basin is formed by subduction between the contenintaal and

oceanic crust with steep subduction angle but when the subduction
angle is small it results in thearea of compression not tension increasing
the weight of the rocks and forming retoarc basin
continent -continient
Peripheral foreland Basins collosions
Retroarc foreland Basins
Strike Slip tectonics
• If a plate boundary is a straight line, then the relative plate motion purely parallel to
that line there would be neither uplift nor basin formation along strike-slip plate
boundaries.
• However, such plate boundaries are not straight, the motion is not purely parallel
and they consist not of a single fault but a network of branching and overlapping
individual faults.
• Zones of localized subsidence and uplift create topographic depressions for sediment
to accumulate and the source areas to supply them
Basins Related to Strike Slip tectonics
Distribution of Hydrocarbons in different types of basins

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Sedimentary Basins

Eng. Mufazzal. S. Kabuli

• Basic Concepts and terms

• Mechanism of Basin Formation

• Classification of Sedimentary Basins

• A Sedimentary basin is defined as an area on the earth

• Most Sedimentary basins cover tens of thousands of square

• Sedimentary basins may occur as a part of mountain chain,

Basins can form in four main ways:

• These are structural valleys bound by extensional (normal) faults.

• The down-faulted blocks are referred to as graben and the up-faulted

• The controls on sedimentation in rift valleys are a combination of

• Subduction occurs at convergent plate margins involving oceanic

• The descending slab is heated as it goes down and partially melts.

Basins related to subduction can be classified as follows:

• Ocean trenches are elongate, gently curving troughs that form

• Trenches formed along margins flanked by continental crust tend

• When an ocean basin completely closes with the total elimination

• Where two continental plates converge, it results in thickening of

• Basins related to crustal loading can be classified as follows:

Contenent -contenint collosions

Back arc basin is formed by subduction between the contenintaal and

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