The Pliocene-Recent Euphrates river system: Sediment facies and architecture as an analogue for subsurface reservoirs

The Tigris-Euphrates is a continental-scale fluvial system, around 2800 km in length, which drains over 1 million km2 of SW Asia. The system originated in the Late Miocene and developed into the principal axial drainage system of the region, which follows broad regional structural features of the Mesopotamian Foreland Basin. Good preservation and outcropping of the Pliocene and Quaternary Euphrates deposits yield a viable local analogue for subsurface fluvial reservoirs in the region, and for other fluvial systems that have developed in foreland basin settings. This paper documents the first detailed study of the sedimentary characteristics of these Pliocene and Quaternary fluvial deposits along the middle reaches of the present-day Euphrates in Syria.