This study investigates the internal facies architecture of a river-dominated delta deposit using outcrops of the Cretaceous Panther Tongue of the Star Point Sandstone in central Utah, U.S.A. A series of photorealistic virtual outcrop models (VOM) were created from ~13 linear-km of outcrop. These VOMs, alongside field observations, were used to identify and map facies and facies associations over the ~25 m-thick stratigraphic interval. A new workflow for querying VOMs as outcrop analogs for subsurface reservoir analogs was developed, using a database of measurements (Panther Tongue - outcrop analog - metric database) was constructed using 60 digital sections that were measured within the VOMs at 152 m (~500 ft) spacing. This database characterizes a total of 508 sandstone beds by their thickness, length, and dip, from which the average thickness (0.78 m), bed length (330 m), and bed dip (2˚ towards the south) were calculated. Thinning rates were also calculated in both depositional strike and depositional dip directions (1.37x10-2 and 1.01x10-2 respectively). The workflow established in this study is applicable to other sedimentary outcrops and environments, thus demonstrating that VOMs can be used as a basis for quantitative database development and reservoir modeling inputs.
The data are bed-scale measurements taken from virtual outcrop models (Morris, E.A., Atlas, C.E., Johnson, C.L., 2023, Architectural analysis of the Panther Tongue - virtual outcrop models) and calibrated with measurements taken at outcrop in the field.
