Fault kinematics and paleostress analysis using seismic data: A case study from the Archinsk field, West Siberian Basin, Russia

Abstract We present a methodology to determine the stress field based on the analysis of 3D seismic reflection data without additional information from wells. It involves the analysis of seismic horizons that were folded before the analyzed fault system. Fold hinges-faults intersections provide piercing points and fault slip vectors, which can be processed in the same way as slickenlines. Four seismic horizons and 51 faults in the Archinsk field, West Siberian Basin, were analyzed. The resulting fault-slip dataset is heterogeneous and has 126 slip vectors, corresponding to normal and strike-slip faulting. A normal stress regime with stress ratio (Φ) of 0.5 and a NE-trending minimum principal stress (σ3) is identified for the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic. A strike-slip stress regime with stress ratio (Φ) of 0.3, NW- and NE-trending maximum (σ1) and minimum principal stresses (σ3) corresponds to the present-day stress field.