BP has just completed the Ephesus or Cape Creel exploration well off the northeast coast of Canada, which has unfortunately been reported dry.
The main target of the well was an Eocene deep-water sandstone. This formed the reason for us to feature an outcrop photo of a deep-water sandstone in the recently published third issue of the GEO ExPro magazine.
This photo, kindly provided by Roy Luck from Apex Subsurface in Houston, shows the Skoorsteen Formation in South Africa’s Karoo Basin in the Western Cape Province. The outcrops in this Permo-Triassic foreland basin are famous for analogs of channelised turbidites or basin floor fans.
The section shown here displays part of the Tanqua submarine fan complex. A prominent sandstone can be seen in the upper part of the outcrop, which is interpreted as a turbidite channel, looking across the channel axis. Below the channel, basinal mudstones with some thin intercalated sandy mass flow units can also be observed.
