Stratigraphy Commons^™

Origin And Distribution Of The Mississippian–Pennsylvanian Boundary Unconformity In Marine Carbonate Successions With A Case Study Of The Karst Development Atop The Madison Formation In The Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Lucien Nana Yobo

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The causal mechanism of the widespread unconformity that encompasses the Mississippian – Pennsylvanian boundary remains poorly understood. This unconformity, first thought to be restricted to North America, is now known to be present in other regions of the globe. Possible causes for the unconformity include (1) sea level draw down from the onset of glaciation at start of the late Paleozoic ice age and (2) increased tectonic activity from the formation of the supercontinent of Pangea. Thus the origin of the unconformity is still poorly constrained.

This study examines possible causal mechanisms for the widespread unconformity that encompasses the Mississippian …

An Analysis Of The Green Knoll Salt Dome, Located In The Southeast Green Canyon, Deep Water Gulf Of Mexico, Randal J. Broussard

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The western portion of the Mississippi/Atwater fold belt in the Gulf of Mexico contains what is known as The Green Knoll Salt Dome. The creation and growth of this salt diapir is punctuated by salt deposition, salt migration, sediment loading, and is linked to the “Frampton” fold belt. An indicator of these growth periods is exhibited in an angular unconformity (halo-kinetic sequence boundary) that flanks the diapir. This unconformity developed during the Miocene-Pliocene chronostratigraphic boundary. The “Redwood” (Green Canyon 1001) prospect was drilled after the discovery of middle Miocene sands containing hydrocarbons in the Mad Dog field (GC 826). The …

Combining Quantitative Eye-Tracking And Gis Techniques With Qualitative Research Methods To Evaluate The Effectiveness Of 2d And Static, 3d Karst Visualizations: Seeing Through The Complexities Of Karst Environments, Elizabeth Katharyn Tyrie

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Karst environments are interconnected landscapes vulnerable to degradation. Many instances of anthropogenic karst disturbance are unintentional, and occur because of the public's lack of understanding or exposure to karst knowledge. When attempts are made to educate the general public about these landscapes, the concepts taught are often too abstract to be fully understood. Thus, karst educational pursuits must use only the most efficient and effective learning materials. A technique useful for assessing educational effectiveness of learning materials is eye-tracking, which allows scientists to quantitatively measure an individual's points of interest and eye movements when viewing a 2D or 3D visualization. …

Subsurface Sequence Stratigraphy And Reservoir Characterization Of The Mississippian Limestone (Kinderhookian To Meramecian), South Central Kansas And North Central Oklahoma, Thomas Cahill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Both conventional and unconventional Mississippian reservoirs in the mid-continent are largely comprised of chert-rich carbonates of Osagean and Meramecan age. The conventional reservoir target is the Mississippian "chat," a high porosity, chert residuum interval found immediately beneath the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian unconformity. The unconventional reservoir target occurs in the lower porosity, cherty, mud-rich intervals that occur in the lower portion of the Mississippian succession.

There has been considerable debate surrounding the sequence stratigraphic interpretations, depositional models, and formation names applied to the reservoir intervals within the subsurface. Another major issue with regard to the subsurface is the stratigraphic position and origin of …

Structure And Stratigraphy Of A Complex Anticlinal Feature, Backbone Anticline, Arkoma Basin, Arkansas, Shailyn Marie Abbott

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma Basin of Arkansas and Oklahoma formed in the Ouachita foreland during the late Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods (about 290-to 330 million years ago). The basin developed in response to convergent tectonic boundaries that closed obliquely from west to east associated with Ouachita orogenic event. The Backbone anticline in the northern Arkoma Basin is a prominent product of this convergence, and represents the first major component of this study. The structure is asymmetric with beds on the southern limb dipping steeply to the south. It is also expressed topographically as a prominent ridge that trends eastward from the Oklahoma-Arkansas …

Depositional History And Stratigraphic Framework Of Upper Cretaceous (Campanian To Maastrichtian) Strata In The Minerva-Rockdale Oil Field Of Milam County And Adjacent Counties, Texas., Adam Thomas Martin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

First discovered in 1921, the Minerva-Rockdale Oil Field (MROF) has experienced a recent resurgence of drilling. The targeted Navarro Group is Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in age and ranges in depth from approximately 100 to 3000+ ft. (subsea). Several thin elongated sandy zones within the Kemp clay of the Corsicana (Navarro) Formation, are the current targets for oil production. These sandy zones are informally divided into the Navarro `A' and `B' and their depositional morphology is described by the shelf plume model, as proposed by Patterson (1983).

Despite the mature nature of the MROF and surrounding area, only a small number …

Structural And Stratigraphic Transition From The Arkoma Shelf Into The Arkoma Basin During Basin Subsidence; Arkoma Basin, Northwest Arkansas, Elizabeth Whitney Studebaker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma basin is an arcuate Paleozoic structural feature in the Ouachita foreland that extends from central Arkansas and westward into southeastern Oklahoma. The Arkoma shelf lies immediately north of the basin and is comprised of Cambrian to Pennsylvanian age sedimentary rocks. In northwestern Arkansas, the stratigraphic and structural transition from the shelf into the northern portion of the Arkoma basin is poorly defined.

Wireline logs were used to construct a series of three north to south cross sections, as well as two along-strike west to east cross sections to examine Morrowan and lower Atokan age strata. In addition to …

Porosity Development Within Lobes To Downslope Ramp Deposits On A Prograding Carbonate Shelf Of The Kinderhookian To Osagean Series In Northwest Arkansas, Elizabeth Marchese

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Carbonate bodies with lobate geometries form a substantial part of the Osagean (early Mississippian) section in northwest Arkansas. The purpose of this study is to isolate and describe a single lobe from three-dimensional exposures in quarry walls to provide criteria by which lobe and lobe porosity can be recognized in the subsurface. Carbonate sediment generated on the Mississippian Burlington shelf moved southward by gravity flows from the shelf margin to positions on a prograding ramp in Arkansas where overlapping deposits with lobate geometries accumulated. These deposits are recognized in outcrops of the Boone Formation. Stratigraphic units within the Boone are …

Some Reflections On Our Experiences At Sun Yat-Sen University Since 1985, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Anne P. Diffendal

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Professor Zhang Ke, Chairman of the Department of Earth Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, has asked us to write about some of our memories from our several visits to Sun Yat-sen University, as part of the 2014 celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the university and the creation of the department. We are very pleased to do so and to include with our written comments copies of some photographs that we have taken during these visits. We have gone back through our notes, books, tourist maps, photo files, and other information that we have kept as souvenirs …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2014, A. R. Young, M. E. Burbach, L. M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Depositional Environment Of The St. Mary River Formation In Western Montana, Stacia M. Martineau

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In May 2013, the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center (TMDC) began excavation on a dinosaur bonebed in the St. Mary River Formation on Carey Butte, Montana. Since excavation started, four additional bonebeds have been discovered in the surrounding area. They display different depositional environments; two are in sandstone and the other three are in siltstone. The purpose of this study is to provide a depositional setting for the area that links all five sites together comprehensively by examining the sedimentology of the area. A stratigraphic analysis of the St. Mary River Formation of Carey Butte revealed four distinct facies associations. Facies …

The Groundwater Atlas Of Lancaster County, Dana Divine

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconstruction Of The Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) Palaeotopography In The Upper Yangtze Region, Linna Zhang, Junxuan Fan, Qing Chen, Shuang-Ye Wu

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Reconstruction of the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) palaeotopography in South China is important for understanding the distribution pattern of the Hirnantian marine depositional environment. In this study, we reconstructed the Hirnantian palaeotopography in the Upper Yangtze region based on the rankings of the palaeo-water depths, which were inferred according to the lithofacies and biofacies characteristics of the sections. Data from 374 Hirnantian sections were collected and standardized through the online Geobiodiversity Database. The Ordinary Kriging interpolation method in the ArcGIS software was applied to create the continuous surface of the palaeo-water depths, i.e. the Hirnantian palaeotopography. Meanwhile, the line transect analysis …

Architecture, Heterogeneity, And Origin Of Late Miocene Fluvial Deposits Hosting The Most Important Aquifer In The Great Plains, Usa, R. Matthew Joeckel, Steve R. Wooden Jr., Jesse T. Korus, Jon Garbisch

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Ash Hollow Formation (AHF) of the Ogallala Group is an important sedimentary archive of the emergence of the Great Plains and it contains major groundwater resources. Stratal patterns of constituent alluvial lithofacies demonstrate that the AHF is much more heterogeneous than is commonly assumed. Very fine- to fine-grained sandstone dominate overall, chiefly lithofacies Sm (massive to locally stratified sandstone). Stacked, thin sheets of Sm with accretionary macroform surfaces are common, indicating that many sandstone architectural elements originated as compound-bar deposits in dominantly sand-bed streams. Channel forms are difficult to identify and steep cutbanks are absent. Multiple units of lithofacies …

Ashfall Tephra In The Ogallala Group Of The Great Plains: Characteristics And Significance, Michael E. Perkins, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Michael R. Voorhies, Barbara P. Nash, Bruce E. Bailey

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

The Miocene Ogallala Group blankets the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains. This sheet of largely fluvial deposits, lying downwind of major silicic volcanic fields to the west, was ideally located to receive and preserve tephra from these fields. This investigation brings modern methods of tephrochronlogy to bear on the age and identity of Ogallala tephra. Results indicate that ~40 separate tephra layers, ranging in age from ~16.5–5.0 Ma, in the Ogallala. Most tephra came from Yellowstone hotspot sources. The relative frequency of hotspot tephra in the Ogallala matches that in more proximal regions to the west with peak …

4d Evolution Of Fluvial System And Channel-Fill Architecture Of The Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation, Wasatch Plateau, Utah: An Integrated Fluvial Rock Record Analysis, Hiranya Sahoo

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Using an integrated dataset comprising outcrop, core, GPR and LiDAR data, this study targets a high-quality outcrop "window" of the upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation in the eastern Wasatch Plateau in central Utah, spanning a fairly large spatial (~30 km² area comprising eight contiguous, and vertical cliff faces) and temporal (~4 my) range. This research provides field-validation and -calibration of a wider range of fluvial heterogeneity: 1) large-scale heterogeneity (10’s of m vertically and 100’s of m laterally), 2) intermediate-scale heterogeneity (1’s of m vertically and 10’s of m laterally), and 3) small-scale heterogeneity (10’s of cm vertically and 1’s …

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 …

Bedrock Geological Map Of The Rockhouse Quadrangle, Carroll And Madison Counties, Arkansas, Douglas Eben Jones

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A digital geologic map of the Rockhouse quadrangle, Carroll and Madison counties, Arkansas, was created on a 1:24,000 scale using ArcMap 10 and Photoshop CS4. The data obtained in the field are digitized onto the United States Geological Survey (USGS) digital raster graphic (DRG) of the Rockhouse quadrangle. The geology in the Rockhouse quadrangle consist entirely of sedimentary rocks that are Paleozoic ranging from Lower Ordovician to Mississippian in age. The Ordovician System is represented by the Cotter, Powell, Everton, and St. Peter Formations. The Cotter and Powell are the prominent bluff forming units throughout the quadrangle and along the …

Sedimentary Provenance Of The Wedington Member, Fayetteville Shale, From Age Relations Of Detrital Zircons, William Tyson Cains

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

U-Pb geochronology of detrital zircons collected from the Chesterian Wedington Sandstone allows interpretation of sediment provenance and dispersal patterns in the southern midcontinent during the Late Mississippian. Detrital zircons analyzed from six samples of Wedington Sandstone yielded a final result of 565 concordant analyses used for interpretation. Results are plotted as Probability-Density Plots to interpret the spectrum of ages. Significant peaks occurred at 350-500 Ma, 950-1250 Ma, 1300-1500 Ma, 1600-1800 Ma, 1800-2300 Ma, and >2500 Ma. These peaks are interpreted as sourced by crystalline rocks within the Laurentian craton from Taconic-Acadian, Grenville, Midcontinent Granite-Rhyolite, Yavapai-Mazatzal, Paleoproterozoic, and Superior Provinces. The …

Hydrogeologic Controls On The Occurrence And Movement Of Groundwater Discharged At Magic Springs In The Spring Branch Creek Drainage Basin: Spring Branch, Texas, Mark T. Childre

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The hydrogeologic controls, flow velocities, flow direction, groundwater delineation, and physical characteristics in a joint controlled dendritic conduit-spring system have been characterized. The known conduit branches from Magic Springs past C My Shovel (CM) Cave with 4475 meters (m) of measurable passages and tributaries. Surface entrance to CM Cave is located 1360 m upstream from discharge at Magic Springs.

Four storm events were measured characterizing the dynamics. The rise time and half flow period time (t_0.5) occur in less than one day. The conduit volume exceeds one half million m³. The conduit-spring system drains within 3.7 …

An Apparent Angular Unconformity In Western Connecticut, Stanley Schleifer, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Adisa Charles, Hernando Martinez, Shirley Jackson, Chiemeka Ihebom

Publications and Research

The recent extension, to the north, of the U. S. Route 7 ‘superhighway’ in the town of Brookfield, Connecticut has involved the excavation of crystalline bedrock of lower Paleozoic to upper Proterozoic age in the area. The road cuts produced by this excavation have exposed some interesting features of structure and lithology. An outcrop, observed by the authors off the east side of route 7, at grid coordinates 41.482444 N, 73.415307 W is of particular interest. It appears, to the casual observer to be an angular unconformity. Maps and publications regarding this area of Western Connecticut support the likelihood of …

Lithic Analysis Of Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site Sediments, Kaitlin M. Hill, George V. Last

STAR Program Research Presentations

The landforms and geologic layers of Southeastern Washington record fascinating, unique geologic events, including repeated catastrophic flooding that occurred during the last Ice Age. These floods left behind many distinctive features, and a variety of fossils. After discovery of mammoth-sized bones in 1999, and confirmation that more bones were still in place in 2008, the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site near Kennewick, Washington was secured for research, and formal excavation began in 2010.

Previous research suggests that the remains are buried in Ice Age flood deposits, which are overlain by eolian sediments, and those in turn overlain by slope wash. We …

Tectonosedimentologic Significance Of The Upper Cretaceous Foreland Basin Siliciclastics: Western Interior, Usa, Nazrul I. Khandaker

Publications and Research

The Upper Cretaceous Frontier Formation exposed along the western margin of the western interior foreland basin is composed of clastic sediments that were deposited during the initial late Cretaceous transgressive-regressive phases of the Western Interior Seaway across Wyoming (Figure 1). Current study is aimed at providing attendees with the best practices associated with tectonic, lithofacies and sedimentologic interpretation of foreland basin sequences and emphasizing the need for utilizing field, structural, geochemical, and compositional data for reconstructing a viable scenario connected with foreland basin sedimentary packages. An attempt will be made to compare documented sedimentological findings with foreland basins located in …

Landslides Of Nebraska, Duane A. Eversoll

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

A Geomechanical Study Of The Mississippian Boone Formation, Karen Nicole Mason Buckland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Boone Formation in northwest Arkansas is a chert-limestone sequence analogous to the subsurface Mississippi Lime reservoir in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. It has low permeability and produces via horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The response to stimulation by fracturing is dependent on the quantity of chert in the area. Chert nodules and laterally extensive chert layers in the sequence are variable. Locally, cm- to dm-scale chert bedding is continuous and comprises up to 50% of the outcrop. Elsewhere, the chert is nodular and intermittent.

Samples collected from representative outcrops spanning the thickness and aerial extent of the formation …

Analysis Of Tripolitic Chert In The Boone Formation (Lower Mississippian, Osagean), Northwest Arkansas And Southwestern Missouri, Paul Marchand Minor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Boone Formation in northwest Arkansas and southwestern Missouri exposes a nearly complete sequence of Lower Mississippian chert-bearing carbonates deposited by a single 3rd order transgression and regression. An abundant amount of chert that has replaced limestone highlights the Boone, but little is understood about the timing and development of chert in Lower Mississippian carbonates. Interpretation of the diagenetic history of the chert, in particular tripolite, has significant implications beyond the outcrop. Determining the origin, timing, and extent of tripolitic chert in the Lower Mississippian System improves reservoir characterization in subsurface petroleum reservoirs in the mid-continent that are laterally equivalent …

Subsurface Stratigraphy And Characterization Of Mississippian (Osagean To Meramecian) Carbonate Reservoirs Of The Northern Anadarko Shelf, North-Central Oklahoma, Brett Robert Wittman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mississippian carbonate strata of the midcontinent contain prolific oil and gas reservoirs. Production from these carbonates has been primarily from two reservoir types, the Mississippi "chat" and recently denser chert-rich mudstone intervals. The"chat" interval is a high porosity chert residuum associated with the both the Osagean and basal Pennsylvanian unconformity. The distribution of the "chat" reservoir is discontinuous and heterogeneous. Recent horizontal drilling successes have reinvigorated academic and industry interest in the Lower Mississippian. Much of the activity is now targeting lower porosity, cherty, mudstone intervals of the Reeds Spring and Cowley Formations, which were previously considered to be non-economic. …

Cretaceous And Paelogene Stratigraphy Of Forrest County, Mississippi, Joel Kenneth Loeffler

Master's Theses

Extensive investigation has been done on the subsurface geology and structure of Maxie and Pistol Ridge fields of Forrest and Pearl River Counties, Mississippi. However, a comprehensive study has not been done on the whole of Forrest County as, aside from two minor fields, oil and gas plays do not exist elsewhere in the county. This thesis expands on the work done Vellora Foster (1941) to describe the subsurface geology of the county. Electrical logs from 289 wells drilled in Covington, Forrest, Jones, Lamar, Pearl River, Perry, and Stone counties were used to correlate stratigraphic horizons. Detailed Stratigraphic descriptions of …

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 …