Marfa basin of West Texas: foreland basin subsidence and depocenter migration

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984 · Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6735889

Mauch, J J; Wetterauer, R H; Walper, J L; Morgan, K M

The Marfa basin, encompassing approximately 6,000 mi/sup 2/ (15,539 km/sup 2/) of Presidio and Brewster Counties in west Texas, is a foreland basin that formed in the late Paleozoic in response to the encroaching Ouachita-Marathon thrust belt. The authors present a model of the formation of the Marfa basin in which basin subsidence is effected by compression from plate convergence and by loading owing to the emplacement of the Marathon fold-thrust complex. A model of foreland basin evolution by thrust loading as applied to the Idaho-Wyoming thrust belt can be applied with some modification to the Marfa foreland basin. The model is supported with data from 63 well logs that indicate the position of the depocenters through time and that suggest the differential elevation of crustal slices controlling the formation and location of the three Pennsylvanian-Permian foreland basins.

• Research Organization: Texas Christian Univ., Fort Worth
• OSTI ID: 6735889
• Report Number(s): CONF-840297-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Journal Volume: 68:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC MODELS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
NORTH AMERICA
ORIGIN
PALEOZOIC ERA
PLATE TECTONICS
PRECAMBRIAN ERA
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
TECTONICS
TEXAS
USA