Beyond single-cause models: Investigating variable pathways to submarine fan architectures in the Golo Fan system

Traditional sequence stratigraphy has largely linked submarine fan formation to relative sea-level changes during lowstand conditions. However, these interpretations may oversimplify the system's complexity by overlooking the contributions of other external and internal controls, such as sediment supply variability, tectonics, and autogenic dynamics. This study employs Lobyte3D, a reduced-complexity stratigraphic forward model, combined with genetic algorithm optimization, to systematically explore the impact of extrinsic factors, including sediment input, basin confinement, and oscillation periodicity on fan development. The results demonstrate that similar depositional architectures can emerge under diverse conditions. Sensitivity analyses reveal that depositional features traditionally linked to lowstands, such as lobate geometries and channelized sediment pathways, can also form under highstand or transgressive conditions. These findings challenge the single-cause scenario interpretative paradigms in sequence stratigraphy by demonstrating the equifinality of depositional processes, emphasizing the need for multivariate and probabilistic approaches in practical predictions of fan development.