Upper Devonian outcrop stratigraphy along Appalachian basin margin in southeastern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia: Implications for hydrocarbon exploration

Conference · Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:6682793

Dennison, J M ^[1]; Filer, J K ^[2]; Rossbach, T J ^[1]

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1. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
2. Washington and Lee Univ., Lexington, VA (United States)

Plane-table measurements of 12 stratigraphic sections extends Foreknobs and Brallier formations member nomenclature from Hightown southwest to Salem. Farther southwest, blackish shale tongues interfinger with coarser clastics prominent in the northeast. Siltstone and silty shale predominate near Bluefield, but the entire Devonian becomes dark shale at Norton. Time control depends on mega-invertebrates, black shale tongues, red-bed zones of shallow sea, Center Hill and Belpre ashes, and siliciclastic pulses related to cyclic drops in sea level. Hydrocarbon potential occurs in sandy wedges coming from the southeast and in black organic shale tongues extending eastward from the Chattanooga-Ohio Shale. The Augusta lobe is the strongest source of sand input of the Catskill delta complex in the region, and siliciclastics moved northwesterward to pond against the southern edge of tectonically positive Beverly arch. The Briery Gap (Alexander of drillers) and Pound (Benson of drillers) sandstone members are well developed from Hightown to White Sulphur Springs, and the Pound Sandstone extends to Gap Mills. No sandstones reach Bluefield along the Allegheny front, but in the Clinch Mountain belt to the southeast, sand of approximate Gordon age extends southwest to Asberrys, Dark, organic shales at Norton are best developed at the Rhinestreet, lower and upper Huron, and Sunbury positions. Berea-Cloyd sandstone and conglomerate are widely traced beneath lowest Mississippian Sunbury Shale. The peripheral bulge unconformity that wedges out to the northeast in Pocahontas County, at about time of Tully deposition, expands to the west.

• OSTI ID: 6682793
• Report Number(s): CONF-930981--
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States) Vol. 77:8; ISSN 0149-1423; ISSN AABUD2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040200 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
APPALACHIAN BASIN
CONGLOMERATES
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SHALES
STRATIGRAPHY
USA
VIRGINIA
WEST VIRGINIA