Sequence Stratigraphy of Paleocene-Holocene Sedimentary Deposits in Kupe Field, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand

A sequence stratigraphic study of Paleocene to Holocene sediments was conducted in the 3D Kerry seismic profiles within the Kupe field of Taranaki basin. A 3D seismic data block consisting of 286 in-lines and 734 cross-lines covering approximately 15 x 37 km(2) were used in this study. The seismic interpretations including seismic facies and sequence boundaries determination as well as borehole analysis were performed by Kingdom 8.8 software. The main objective of the whole analysis is to identify the sequence stratigraphic units of Kupe field and for this reason, a seismic line and Toru-1 well was chosen for detail geological interpretation. Based on seismic data, various seismic facies including parallel, sub-parallel, continuous, discontinuous, wavy, high amplitude, low amplitude, high frequency and low frequency were identified representing the sedimentary patterns of the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits. These sedimentary features were associated with particular formations and age based on well correlation. Basically, about 10 main horizons (H1-H10) were identified by a 3D seeker technique representing the sequence boundaries separating 11 different formations of Paleocene to Recent in age. In this study, after some thorough analysis, the youngest formation was decided to be divided into two parts based on the presence of a new sequence boundary namely J1 detected in the bottom of the top formation characterized by onlap stratal termination indicating a period of sea level rise.