RESEARCH INTEREST

Recent developments in fluvial geomorphology and sedimentology suggest that fluvial fans may be responsible for the accumulation of large volumes of clastic successions in continental basins. The possibility of identifying a “typical” stratigraphic signature for aggrading fluvial fans opens a new perspective to interpret continental records, as currently distinguishing the effects of autogenic dynamics from those of allogenic forcing remains a major challenge. Furthermore, due to the intrinsic heterogeneity displayed by successions of this type of alluvial system, the success of palaeoenvironmental interpretations and of exploration for subsurface resources relies greatly on the reliability of the chosen stratigraphic model.

MY PROJECT 

The main task of my PhD is to characterize the sediment distribution patterns and the internal architecture of a fluvial fan deposit though an outcrop-based study of the Wasatch/Colton Fm, which is part of the early infill of the Uinta Basin (central Utah, U.S.A.). Detailed ground-based surveys are integrated with an extensive collection of photo panels to correlate individual sedimentary bodies and to better characterize facies heterogeneities at a large scale through a possibly complete proximal-to-distal transect. The sedimentological model is then corroborated with mineralogical analysis (optimized via QEMSCAN technology) and geochemical data to identify a relationship between genetic processes, architectural organization and sediment composition.

Thanks to this multidisciplinary approach, we aim to highlight basin-scale autogenic signatures and architectural trends between different outcrop belts. The elaboration of photo-panel imagery also allows deriving a facies and architectural framework along multiple, laterally correlatable transects to guide a 3D characterization of the system architecture. The objective is to unravel the complex history of fluvial-fan development across the whole Uinta Basin (e.g. general fan progradation, the architecture of clustered channel-belts, and repetitive stacking of avulsion-related facies associations), to identify sedimentological and compositional signals of basin-wide significance, disentangling them from those of more local significance (e.g. small-scale channel relocation vs depositional-lobe switching due to nodal avulsion).