High resolution Facies Architecture

Facies analysis embraces the process of analysing and interpreting sedimentological data with the aim of generating an understanding of depositional process and the environment of deposition. The identified lithofacies units are placed within a genetic context to define a genetic facies scheme and a series of facies associations, relating directly to the process and environmental setting during deposition.

Shore-parallel bars, offshore North Wales

For subsurface data, extrapolation of facies from detailed, high-resolution core description into uncored intervals makes use of all available data. Facies schemes are typically hierarchical in nature and designed to allow upscaling from core or outcrop scale to seismic scale without loss of utility. Facies analysis will make extensive use of any and all available biological and biostratigraphic information, with faunal assemblages helping to define the likely depositional context and constraining possible interpretations of physical processes defined from the preserved fabrics and sedimentary structures.