Regional Big Injun (Price/Pocono) subsurface stratigraphy of West Virginia

Conference · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:5699425

Donaldson, A C; Zou, Xiangdong ^[1]

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1. West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States)

The lower Big Injun (Lower Mississippian) is the oil reservoir of the Granny Creek and Rock Creek fields and consists of multiple sandstones that were deposited in different fluvial-deltaic depositional environments. These multiple sandstones became amalgamated and now appear as a widespread blanket sandstone as a result of ancient cut and fill processes associated with river-channel sedimentation. The regional study of this Price Formation subsurface equivalent considers the continuity and thickness variations of the composite sandstones of the Big Injun mainly within western West Virginia. The major fluvial drainage system apparently flowed southward through Ohio (much of it later eroded by the pre-Pottsville unconformity) during Big Injun time (and earlier) and part of the system was diverted into southwestern West Virginia as vertically stacked channel and river-mouth bar deposits (Rock Creek field). This ancient Ontario River system apparently drained a huge area including the northern craton as well as the orogenic belt. The emerging West Virginia Dome probably sourced the sediment transported by small rivers developing southwestward prograding deltas across Clay County (Granny Creek field). Sedimentation was affected by differential subsidence in the basin. Paleovalley fill was considered for areas with vertically stacked sandstones, but evidence for their origin is not convincing. Oil-reservoir sandstones are classified as dip-trending river channel (D1) and deltaic shoreline (D2) deposits.

• OSTI ID: 5699425
• Report Number(s): CONF-921058-; CODEN: GAAPBC
• Journal Information: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 24:7; Conference: 1992 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Cincinnati, OH (United States), 26-29 Oct 1992; ISSN 0016-7592
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
STRATIGRAPHY
WEST VIRGINIA
DRAINAGE
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
OIL FIELDS
RIVERS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTATION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGY
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
USA
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration