Sedimentological cross section of Cambro-Ordovician carbonate shelf (Knox group, Conassauga Formation) in central Alabama: facies, diagenesis, potential reservoirs
Cambro-Ordovician thrust-imbricated carbonates in central Alabama are the focus of renewed exploration interest. Samples from east-west-trending core holes within the surface-most thrust plates reconstruct the carbonate shelf and shelf-edge facies before deformation. The Upper Cambrian shelf margin now is in the subsurface of Talledega County; coeval dolostones in the western part of the state represent the former shelf interior. Rock analogs to former environments include the following. (1) Barrier shoals (Conasauga Formation) - dark colored, partially dolomitized ooid and skeletal grainstones. (2) Submerged back-barrier and offshelf dolomitized sediments (lower Knox Group) - western belt: finely crystalline algal thrombolites, fenestral dolopelmicrites, rippled beds; eastern belt: finely laminated dolostones, slope-derived pebbles and graded beds. (3) Tidal flats (upper Knox Group) - light-colored, crystalline dolostones, dolomitized pellet grainstones, algal laminites, pseudomorphs after sulfates and early diagenetic chertification. (4) Former emergent shelf -(Knox unconformity)-pelmicrite, skeletal wackestones, erosional chert pebble conglomerate. Multiple possibilities for hydrocarbon reservoirs appear throughout the sequence. Vuggy and intercrystalline dolostone porosity is primarily in the lower Knox formations. Primary interparticle pores are retained in lower Knox algal buildups. Breccia porosity occurs in the strata below the Knox unconformity through solution of the underlying Knox Group. Fractures in the subsurface are believed to enhance permeability in all porosity types.
- Research Organization:
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY
- OSTI ID:
- 6387538
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8405216-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Vol. 68:4; Conference: AAPG annual convention, San Antonio, TX, USA, 20 May 1984
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
An Evaluation of the Carbon Sequestration Potential of the Cambro-Ordovician Strata of the Illinois and Michigan Basins. Part 1. Evaluation of Phase 2 CO2 Injection Testing in the Deep Saline Gunter Sandstone Reservoir (Cambro-Ordovician Knox Group), Marvin Blan No. 1 Hancock County, Kentucky Part 2. Time-lapse Three-Dimensional Vertical Seismic Profile (3D-VSP) of Sequestration Target Interval with Injected Fluids
Incipiently drowned platform deposit in cyclic Ordovician shelf sequence: Lower Ordovician Chepultepec Formation, Virginia
Related Subjects
03 NATURAL GAS
ALABAMA
CARBONATE ROCKS
RESERVOIR ROCK
EVALUATION
CAMBRIAN PERIOD
ORDOVICIAN PERIOD
PERMEABILITY
FEDERAL REGION IV
GEOLOGIC AGES
NORTH AMERICA
PALEOZOIC ERA
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USA
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
030200 - Natural Gas- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration