Stratigraphy Commons^™

Revealing Watery Geologies: Softening The Mississippi River Bluffs In Saint Paul, Minnesota, Chloe Kahn

Masters Theses

How is a place shaped by the geologies beneath it? In Saint Paul, Minnesota, the geologic ground tells the story of the different forces and processes that shaped it through time, but in the most recent geologic period of the anthropocene, industrialization and urban development have covered up these stories. On the edge of downtown, where the city meets the Mississippi River, an eighty foot concrete wall replaces the natural form of the bluff shaped by glacial and riverine activity. This thesis peels back the anthropogenic materials we encounter every day and explores Saint Paul through deep time– exploring how …

Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories Of Water And Earth, Alexis Violet

Masters Theses

Unearthing Complexity investigates conceptions of time and surface through geological stories of the water and earth. Building on theories of deep time, hydrofeminism, critical zones, and grounding, I hope to foster a deeper awareness of time scales other than our own and a more tangible understanding of the embodied experience of matter in the universe. Working toward a new literacy of the water and earth in which they are recognized as living, changing bodies to which we are inherently tied at a molecular level, the site of this multiscalar inquiry occurs in the coastal zones of the Narragansett Bay where …

Depositional Facies And Sequence Stratigraphy Of Niagaran-Lower Salina Reef Complex Reservoirs Of The Guelph Formation, Michigan Basin, Matthew J. Rine

Masters Theses

Hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Niagara-Lower Salina Reef Complex in the Michigan Basin have been extensively studied since the early 1960’s. These reservoirs host an immense hydrocarbon resource, existing as closely-spaced, highly-compartmentalized reservoirs that have produced >500 million barrels of oil and 2.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Previous studies depict these “pinnacle reefs” as tall, symmetrical towers with a random distribution of facies. This study utilizes abundant core data (32 cores, 20-acre spacing), thin-section petrography, and petrophysical wire-line logs to reconstruct the geometry, facies distributions, depositional history, and sequence stratigraphy of the Columbus III Reef Complex within the Southern …

Stratigraphic Controls On Diagenetic Pathways In The St. Peter Sandstone, Michigan Basin, Stephen A. Zdan

Masters Theses

The Middle Ordovician St. Peter Sandstone in the Michigan Basin is a target for hydrocarbon exploration/production, and carbon sequestration and geologic storage. The St. Peter is predominantly a marine sandstone with four dominant lithofacies. The uppermost facies contains zones of porosity and good reservoir quality. Because of the mostly uniform detrital composition, diagenesis must play a leading role in reservoir quality development. This study tests stratigraphic controls on diagenesis and reservoir quality development. The distribution of diagenetic regimes is believed to result from depositional setting and related geologic processes, including variations in sediment accumulation rate. Early carbonate cements preserve pre-compaction …

Late Mississippian (Chesterian) Through Early Pennsylvanian (Atokan) Strata, Michigan Basin, U.S.A., Shannon M. Towne

Masters Theses

Over 2,000 linear feet of core material was analyzed to evaluate the stratigraphy and basin evolution of Carboniferous strata in the Michigan basin. Rock units were evaluated on the basis of lithofacies type, contact relationships, and existing regional geologic interpretations. The recovery of three distinct pollen and spore assemblages from core confirms the timing of deposition during the Late Mississippian Chesterian and Early-Middle Pennsylvanian Morrowan and Atokan regional stages within the Michigan basin.

The deposition of a marine carbonate succession with significant interstratified quartz sandstone occurred during the Chesterian regional stage. The Bayport interval (Bayport Limestone) is composed of seven …

Integrating Depositional Facies And Sequence Stratigraphy In Characterizing Unconventional Reservoirs: Eagle Ford Shale, South Texas, Seth Jordan Workman

Masters Theses

The Mid-to-Late Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas is a mixed siliciclastic/carbonate, unconventional resource play with considerable oil and natural gas. Characterization of Eagle Ford reservoir quality and potential is made difficult by complex, small-scale heterogeneities.

The limited availability of subsurface data constrains previous subsurface Eagle Ford investigations. As a result, the internal variability of depositional facies and reservoir attributes remain poorly understood for these Eagle Ford rocks.

This investigation incorporates a representative group of four Eagle Ford cores, and core data, from within the current play area in order to: 1) determine facies successions, 2) establish a hierarchal …

Analysis And Interpretation Of The 5,000 Ft. (1,538 M) Red-Bed Sequence Encountered In The Sparks E̲T̲ A̲L̲. #1-8 (Michigan Basin Deep Borehole), John H. Fowler

Masters Theses

A 5,000 ft (1,538 m) pre-Mt. Simon (Upper Cambrian) red-bed sequence, encountered in the Gratiot County deep borehole (Sparks et al. #1-8) and herein na~ed the North Star Formation, consists of undeformed recurring beds of immature arkosic sandstone 2 to 34 in. (5 to 85 cm) thick. These beds grade upward from erosional basal contacts into mudstone units 1 in to 12 ft (3 cm to 3.8.m) thick. Within the sandstones, grading, horizontal lamination, and crossstratification define Bouma intervals "a", "b", and "c", which combine to form incomplete Bouma sequences. Mudstones exhibit abundant horizontal laminations. Secondary sedimentary structures (load . …