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Title: How shallow drilling would be useful in establishing a reference section for syntectonic Pennsylvania and Permian sedimentation patterns adjacent to the Wichita uplift

Conference · · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)
OSTI ID:6003224
 [1]
  1. Texas Christian Univ., Fort Worth, TX (United States). Geology Dept.

The Wichita uplift in southwestern Oklahoma is part of a record of Pennsylvania and early Permian tectonism that affected the Southern Oklahoma aulacogen. The principal effect of this tectonism was to either invert or accentuate the existing section into uplifts and syntectonic basins respectively. As a result of the Wichita uplift, the Paleozoic sedimentary section of the aulacogen was stripped off, resulting in the exposure of the Cambrian igneous fill. At the same time sediments shed from the uplift into the adjacent Anadarko (to the north) and Hardeman-Hollis (to the south) basins constitute an inverted record of this erosion. Collectively these sedimentary rocks are referred to as the Granite Wash' in the subsurface and the Post Oak Conglomerate' at the surface. In both situations the rocks were deposited as a complex of alluvial fans or fan deltas. In addition to being a tangible record of contemporary uplift and erosion, these rocks also bear the imprint of a gradually changing climate (humid to arid) that reflects the northward drift of the craton. Although the Granite Wash is encountered in drilling (and in places is a hydrocarbon reservoir), it is rarely cored and, because of the complexity of its facies, difficult to correlate. Similarly the overlying Post Oak Conglomerate is poorly exposed and equally difficult to correlate. Furthermore, the Post Oak is only a partial analogue of the Granite Wash in the sense that it is a deposit related to relief reduction rather than contemporary tectonism. It follows that a complete core or series of cores taken from both flanks of the Wichita uplift would be an invaluable reference to an understanding of the interractions between tectonic, climatic, depositional and diagenetic factors that have influenced these rocks.

OSTI ID:
6003224
Report Number(s):
CONF-9303212-; CODEN: GAAPBC
Journal Information:
Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:1; Conference: 27. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) South-Central Section meeting, Fort Worth, TX (United States), 15-16 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English