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DOTS project

Deep Offshore Tectonic Studies

 

 

A cooperative study of the deep margins between academic scientists and the oil Industry

A PROPOSAL PRESENTED AT
THE ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE (PARIS, FRANCE)

by
Professor X. Le Pichon, project leader
Dr. C. Rangin , project manager
Dr. N. Chamot Rooke, DOTMED coordinator
Dr. M. Pubellier, DOTSEA coordinator

 

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THE PROJECT

 

 

 

 

THE NEEDS:

The present and future development of oil exploration is largely focused on ventures in deep water environments. This concerns particularly the deep margins of continents but also some of the deep basins that have been affected by deformation. New discoveries have been recently made at depth below 1500m and some companies are planning new ventures at even greater water depths.

On the other hand the scientific community developed during the last two decades tools to investigate the deep offshore environments which were less attractive to oil industry. Deep sea drilling and swath mapping are among these tools but seismic data were also acquired as well as seismic studies, study of satellite derived gravity field, GPS measurements and topographic data....

 

THE LINKS BETWEEN COMMUNITIES:

 

THE PROPOSAL

 

To establish new synthetic tectonic maps of the deep offshore in the Mediterranean sea, and the SE Asian basins based on recent marine geological and geophysical data.

 

In the concept of plate tectonics , lithospheric plates are considered as rigid and plate boundaries are considered to be located in very narrow zones. That is mainly the case for convergence (limited decollement above subduction zones) but the idea is also applied to rifting and spreading marked by an onset unconformity. Only collisions were considered as large intraplate deformation zones over
hundreds of kilometers on both sides of the suture.
New tectonic concepts on the dynamics of the lithosphere reveal strong coupling along many subduction zones with large effects extending into the upper plate, diachronous opening of basins inducing wide age distribution of onset unconformities along a single margin. Crustal delamination in collision zones induce important thermal anisotropy into the interacting plates.
Sedimentary basins located in geodynamically active areas are thus in permanent evolution and may not necessarily follow the simple rules of rifting and thermal sagging.

 

Various new tools are now used by geoscientists to understand the tectonic evolution of basins and margins, particularly in the deep offshore.


The synthesis will be based on the numerous deep offshore data collected in each area below 500m depth. This will include data from oceanographic cruises conducted by our Institution in the Mediterranean and the SE Asian basins. These data include side scan sonar, swath bathymetry, multichannel seismics, magnetics, and sea surface gravity as well as reprocessed satellite derived gravity. We will use the most recent kinematics data including GPS surveys and tomography.

 

We will combine available geological and geophysical information to produce on a 3 years basis a new tectonic map of the basins for each of the sub-project area. This document will be provided at the term of the study on hard copy at appropriate scale and on digital format (Intergraph Igds).
This map will include information on the actives or inactive faults, distribution and status of deformation in the basins and a synthesis of the surface heat flow taken from literature and internal reports (mainly for SE Asia). The map will be supported by synthetic cross sections and kinematics framework.
The descriptive report will focus on specific targets where precise data were obtained by the Institution.

Two main areas are concerned by the DOTS PROJECT headed by Prof. Xavier Le Pichon:

 

Deep Offshore Tectonics of the Mediterranean basins
Scientific coordinator
Dr. Nicolas Chamot-Rooke

 

Deep Offshore Tectonics in South East Asia
Scientific coordinator
Dr. Manuel Pubellier

 

 

DOTS project plans to extend the regional synthesis to other parts of the world (Caribbean and Atlantic regions) depending on the request of partners.
DOTS is also formally linked to a thermal modelling project developed by ENS in cooperation with IFP (Institut Français du Pétrole). The goal of this thermal project is to model the heat flow history of specific deep offshore basins, using subsidence, gravity and seismic reflection-refraction data as constraints.

 

Routine work of synthesis will be performed by 2 post-doc students (100% affected to the concerned sub-project) under the permanent supervision of a senior scientist in the Institution.
A progress report will be produced every year per sub-project and one meeting planned yearly in Paris. During this meeting participants from the oil industry will be able to consult and discuss the original data on which the interpretative maps are based.
The post-doc and their supervisors will be invited to present the detailed advancement of the project to the companies on their request.
The map in progress will be accessible by FTP transfer at any time from one of the workstation of the Institution. The access will be restricted to participants.

The ticket for participation is on a year basis but the final product will be available at the end of a 3 years period.

 

Pr. Xavier le Pichon
Dr. Claude Rangin
Dr. Nicolas Chamot-Rooke
Dr. Manuel Pubellier
Pr. Georges Pascal
Dr. Philippe Huchon
Dr. Hai Nguyen
Dr. Rachel Walcott
Dr Frédéric Ego
David Tsang Hin Sun
Patrick Pagot
Charlotte Nielsen
Pr. Raoul Madariga
Dr. Helène Lyon-Caen
Dr. Christophe Vigny


 

During the course of the project scientists will remain free to publish the data on which the synthesis is based.
Maps and reports will be restricted to the use of the participants until 1 year following the end of the project.

 

Our Institution detains the expertise in all the scientific fields concerned by the project. This include geodynamics, marine and land tectonic analysis, geophysics, including seismics, seismology, gravity and magnetics.
The project leader is one of the scientists at the origin of the plate tectonic concept. His team has been involved in numerous offshore studies in the Mediterranean basins and SE Asia, including Japan and the Western Pacific in general.
Senior scientists of the institution have conducted or participated over 10 cruises in the Mediterranean over the last 10 years, and over 15 in SE Asia and Japan.

 

DOTS is organized in two sub-projects (DOTSEA and DOTMED). Budget is calculated per sub-project and on the basis of 2 post-doc students per sub-project. Financial management is assumed by a private company in France, and each sub-project is scientifically managed separately.


Companies are invited to participate to one or two projects. Cost of the yearly ticket is 50 000 USD and a 50% discount is offered for the additional project participation.

 

 

Contacts

 
Laboratoire de Géologie
Ecole Normale Supérieure
24 rue Lhomond
75231 - PARIS Cedex 05
FAX: 33.144 32 20 00
 
 
 
 
 
 
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