Proposed shallow drilling at the interface between the southern Oklahoma aulacogen and Ouachita fold belt, Arbuckle Mountains region, Oklahoma
- Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of Geology and Planetary Science
Two major tectonic elements in southern North America are the southern Oklahoma aulacogen and the Ouachita foldbelt. The Aulacogen is characterized by basement-cored high-angle fault blocks along which movement occurred throughout much of Paleozoic time. It is one of the most intensely deformed areas in the stable interior platform of the craton. The fold belt, in contrast, consists primarily of thin-skinned compressional structures that formed in Late Paleozoic time. These two prominent tectonic features strike at a high angle to one another and are juxtaposed in southeast Oklahoma where the contact is buried shallowly beneath Cretaceous rocks of the Gulf Coastal Plain. A drilling program comprised of a series of shallow holes drilled across the contact zone will establish the structural and stratigraphic relationships at this important tectonic interface. The results obtained should be critical in elucidating the effect that the transverse aulacogen structures had on the development of the Ouachita frontal zone. Proposed drilling sites are in northern Bryan and Choctaw counties, Oklahoma, along the Tishomingo--Belton anticlines southeast of the basement-cored eastern Arbuckle Mountains. Crystalline rocks in this region are massive middle Proterozoic granitoid rocks overlain by Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. Farther southeast, rocks in the frontal zone consist mainly of Late Paleozoic flysch-type sedimentary rocks. Depths to Paleozoic and older rocks beneath the coastal plain deposits are about 300--500 meters so that targeted structures can easily be reached.
- OSTI ID:
- 5976523
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303212--
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Vol. 25:1; ISSN GAAPBC; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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