Deltas in the stratigraphic record: Catching up with the marine geologists on understanding compound delta clinoforms

River delta deposits hold significant hydrocarbon resources and "fluvio-deltaic" environments were some of the first developed along the northern Gulf of Mexico and in other parts of the world. The rise of Carbon Capture and Storage projects will further increase focus on reservoirs in fluvial and shallow water deposits because they are closer to the industrial sources of CO2. However, interpretation of paralic deposits in the stratigraphic record has tended to ignore the double-clinoform morphology of deltas that develops the greatly extended subaqueous portions of wave- and tide- dominated deltas as well as a remarkable and significant spatial separation between shoreline and subaqueous delta- front rollovers. In wave and tide dominated deltas, only by the time the delta reaches the shelf edge are the subaerial and subaqueous clinoforms merged, otherwise the inner and middle-shelf deltas will have a double-clinoform morphology.