Deepwater Syn-Rift Stratigraphic Heterogeneity: An Integrated Core and Outcrop Analogue from the Gulf of Corinth, Greece

Deep-water syn-rift deposits are challenging to characterise in the sub-surface and are comparatively understudied in comparison to larger, typically finer grained systems on passive margins. Short length and time scales of structural variability, high-sediment supply, and complex drainages can cause significant stratigraphic heterogeneity. A principal risk in the exploration and production of hydrocarbon resources in such settings therefore lies in understanding and accurately predicting stratigraphic architecture. Outcrop analogues can bridge the gap between understanding core and seismic scale observations to address this, however for deep-water syn-rift systems are rarely well preserved. Here we integrate outcrop fieldwork with a fully cored, research borehole in deep-water syn-rift exposures in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. Digital outcrop, palaeomagnetic, palynological, sedimentological and structural analyses form a multi-disciplinary, and multi-scale approach address the stratigraphic architecture and core expressions of a deep-water syn-rift depositional system through extensive exposures of Mid-Pleistocene syn-rift infill of a deep-water fault terrace. This study permits the development of new conceptual models for deep-water syn-rift stratigraphy providing qualitative and quantitative investigations of the nature, distribution and evolution of conglomerate rich lobes, mass transport complexes, and coarse grained channel fills in deep-water syn-rift settings.