Smackover platform sand bodies: a Bahamas model. [Alabama]
Stave Creek field, a potential multimillion-barrel Smackover oil field in Clarke County, Alabama, owes much of its prolific production to an extensive, 100 ft (30 m) thick buildup of porous ooid and peloid grainstones. Seismic profiles and residual gravity maps indicate the field is located on the edge of a large, Jurassic, northeast tilted block of approximately 12 mi/sup 2/ (31 km/sup 2/). The block, which formed a shallow platform for Late Jurassic deposition, is bounded on the west by an older component of the Jackson fault, and slopes eastward into the present graben complex of the Gilbertown and West Bend faults. This location placed the platform in a position between the mouth of the Manila embayment and the eastern edge of the Mississippi interior salt basin. Tidal fluctuation between basins and the open marine conditions to the west had a strong influence on sedimentation across the platform. Cores from the area indicate a pronounced westward trend in increased carbonate grain stability and sediment winnowing. Smackover sediments from the deeper east side of the platform are composed primarily of peloidal lime mudstones and wackestones and packstones. Those of the western edge form a high-energy facies of well-sorted ooid and onchoidal grainstones, e.g., the Stave Creek field reservoir. A modern analog to the deposition on this Jurassic platform is found along the margins of the Great Bahama Bank, and specifically the north Andros-Joulters Cays area.
- Research Organization:
- Jura-Search, Inc., Jackson, MS
- OSTI ID:
- 6570846
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8310301-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Vol. 67:9; ISSN AAPGB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
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03 NATURAL GAS
030200 -- Natural Gas-- Reserves
Geology
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ALABAMA
CARBONATE ROCKS
DRILL CORES
FEDERAL REGION IV
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC MODELS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
GRAVITY SURVEYS
GULF COAST
JURASSIC PERIOD
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
OIL FIELDS
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
POROSITY
PRODUCTION
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SEDIMENTATION
SEISMIC SURVEYS
SURVEYS
USA