Introduction to Structural Geology (GEOL90049)

This course will be run as a hands-on workshop introducing the main structural geometries seen on seismic data and in outcrop in the oil industry. The emphasis is on developing a workflow to allow exploration and production geologists and geophysicists to assess structural style and produce valid structural interpretations as well as consider alternative interpretations. The course will introduce the structural styles associated with extension, compression, inversion, strike-slip and salt diapirism. Shale diapirism and fractures are an optional extra. Examples will be shown from both seismic data and outcrop. Frequent short exercises, interpreting seismic data and outcrop images, will reinforce the theory presented.

The workshop will concentrate on practical methods to define the relationships between faults, folds, sedimentary packages and regional elevation and how they can be used predictively to validate an interpretation and prospect. Emphasis is placed on the ‘Structural Family’ present in an area, which depends strongly on the basement architecture and tectonic history. Seismic and field examples are drawn from the Timor Sea, Bass Strait, Borneo, the Gulf of Suez, the Apennines, the Taranaki Basin, New Guinea, Indonesia, Watchet, the Otway Basin, Cape Liptrap, the Pyrenees and the Canadian Rockies amongst others.