Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Item
    Temporal evolution of fault systems in the Upper Jurassic of the Central German Molasse Basin: case study Unterhaching
    (Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2018) Budach, Ingmar; Moeck, Inga; Lüschen, Ewald; Wolfgramm, Markus
    The structural evolution of faults in foreland basins is linked to a complex basin history ranging from extension to contraction and inversion tectonics. Faults in the Upper Jurassic of the German Molasse Basin, a Cenozoic Alpine foreland basin, play a significant role for geothermal exploration and are therefore imaged, interpreted and studied by 3D seismic reflection data. Beyond this applied aspect, the analysis of these seismic data help to better understand the temporal evolution of faults and respective stress fields. In 2009, a 27 km2 3D seismic reflection survey was conducted around the Unterhaching Gt 2 well, south of Munich. The main focus of this study is an in-depth analysis of a prominent v-shaped fault block structure located at the center of the 3D seismic survey. Two methods were used to study the periodic fault activity and its relative age of the detected faults: (1) horizon flattening and (2) analysis of incremental fault throws. Slip and dilation tendency analyses were conducted afterwards to determine the stresses resolved on the faults in the current stress field. Two possible kinematic models explain the structural evolution: One model assumes a left-lateral strike slip fault in a transpressional regime resulting in a positive flower structure. The other model incorporates crossing conjugate normal faults within a transtensional regime. The interpreted successive fault formation prefers the latter model. The episodic fault activity may enhance fault zone permeability hence reservoir productivity implying that the analysis of periodically active faults represents an important part in successfully targeting geothermal wells.
  • Item
    High‐resolution reflection seismics reveal the structure and the evolution of the Quaternary glacial Tannwald Basin
    (Oxford : Wiley, 2018) Burschil, Thomas; Buness, Hermann; Tanner, David C.; Wielandt‐Schuster, Ulrike; Ellwanger, Dietrich; Gabriel, Gerald
    Over-deepened basins exist throughout the Alpine realm. Improving our knowledge on these basins is of high social relevance, since these areas are often well-populated and they possess, for instance, unusual hydrological settings. Nonetheless, geophysical and sedimentological investigations of over-deepened basins are rare. We analyse the sedimentary succession of such a basin, the Tannwald Basin, through geological interpretation of seismic reflection profiles. The basin is located approximately 60 km north of the European Alps. It was incised into Tertiary molasse sediments by the Rhine Glacier and later filled by glacial, fluvial, and lacustrine deposits of 250 m thickness. The Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics acquired a grid of five high-resolution seismic reflection lines that imaged till the deepest parts of the Tannwald Basin. The seismic profiles, processed to a pre-stack depth migration level, allow a detailed geological interpretation that is calibrated with the help of a nearby borehole. We determine the structure and the seismic facies of the sediment succession in the basin and presume the following hypothesis of the evolution of the basin: sub-glacial erosion comprises the excavation of the over-deepened basin as well as detachment of large fragments of molasse material. These molasse slabs were deposited within the basin in a layer of basal till that graded upwards in water-lain till and fine-grained deposits. During the last two glaciations, the basinal structure became buried by till sequences and glacio-fluvial sediments.