Niccolo Menegoni has the pleasure to attend EGU General Assembly – Vienna (EGU24) held on 14-19 March at Austria Center Vienna. Niccolo presented his groundbreaking research on Jebel Madar in the Adam Foothills of North Oman.

The research Team consists of Yuri Panara, Regina Iakusheva, Meha Medjati, Juliette Lamarche, Pascal Richard and Thomas Finkbeiner. Their study focuses on unraveling the structural complexities of Jebel Madar, a salt-cored, faulted anticline with outcropping Shuaiba and Natih carbonate rocks serving as reservoir analogs for Omani hydrocarbon fields. With a maximum depth of burial similar to subsurface fields, Jebel Madar outcrops provide a perfect structural analogue for fracture and fault-dominated reservoirs above a salt dome.

Recently, a high-resolution drone photogrammetry survey was conducted, generating approximately 37,000 photographs covering around 6 km² with resolutions between 3cm and 1mm. This dataset has enabled them to develop 44 Digital Outcrop Models (DOMs) containing approximately 10.2 billion points, allowing for detailed analysis of fault and fracture networks in terms of orientation, intensity, and 3D arrangement. Our presentation showcased early results of this analysis, illustrating the impact of mechanical stratigraphy on fracture distributions in 3D and re-evaluating the influence of regional tectonics on the structural rise of the dome. These findings not only advance their understanding of Jebel Madar's structural evolution but also have implications for hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir characterization.

Stay tuned for further updates as they continue to delve deeper into the fascinating world of structural geology and its applications in resource exploration and management!