Forward modeling of carbonate platforms

Various forward stratigraphic modeling techniques have been used to simulate carbonate platform evolution as a function of sediment production, transport, tectonic subsidence, and eustasy. Due to the multidimensional nature of the controlling parameters, modeling the interaction between these physical factors poses a significant challenge. In order to allow for efficient exploration of the parameter space and reduce geological uncertainty, a simpler modeling approach is required. The simple approach involves modeling the effect of first order controls like subsidence, sediment production and antecedent topography on platform margin trajectory. The resulting models can be used as input in more complex process-modeling packages (DIONISOS, GPM etc.) to model higher order controls like eustasy and sediment transport. There are two main advantages to this approach, first is that this approach allows for a better control on uncertainty propagation at every modeling step resulting in better prediction and distribution of reservoir facies. Second, the rule-based modeling combined with geostatistics produces a range of ensemble models that are consistent with geological data. Thus, helping in quantification of non-uniqueness and better parameter estimation.