• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.10 no.1_2 s.11
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• pp.23-33
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• 2004

The Lago Sofia conglomerate in southern Chile is a lenticular unit encased within mudstone-dominated, deep-sea successions (Cerro Toro Formation, upper Cretaceous), extending from north to south for more than $120{\cal}km$. The Lago Sofia conglomerate is a unique example of long, gravelly deep-sea channels, which are rare in the modern environments. In the northern part (areas of Lago Pehoe and Laguna Goic), the conglomerate unit consists of 3-5 conglomerate bodies intervened by mudstone sequences. Paleocurrent data from these bodies indicate sediment transport to the east, south, and southeart. The conglomerate bodies in the northern Part are interpreted as the tributary channels that drained down the Paleoslope and converged to form N-S-trending trunk channels. In the southern part (Lago Sofia section), the conglomerate unit comprises a thick (> 300 m) conglomerate body, which probably formed in axial trunk channels of the N-5-trending foredeep trough. The well-exposed Lago Sofia section allowed for detailed investigation of sedimentary facies and large-scale architecture of the deepsea channel conglomerate. The conglomerate in Lago Sofia section comprises stratified conglomerate, massive-to-graded conglomerate, and diamictite, which represent bedload deposition under turbidity currents, deposition by high-density turbidity currents, and muddy debris flows, respectively. Paleocurrent data suggest that the debris flows originated from the failure of nearby channel banks or slopes flanking the channel system, whereas the turbidity currents flowed parallel to the orientation of the overall channel system. Architectural elements produced by turbidity currents represent vertical stacking of gravel sheets, lateral accretion of gravel bars, migration of gravel dunes, and filling of channel thalwegs and scoured hollows, similar to those in terrestrial gravel-bed braided rivers. Observations of large-scale stratal pattern reveal that the channel bodies are offset stacked toward the east, suggestive of an eastward migration of the axial trunk channel. The eastward channel migration is probably due to tectonic tilting related to the uplift of the Andean protocordillera just west of the Lago Sofia deep-sea channel system.