Gladden Pull-Apart Basin, offshore Belize

Conference · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:6065881

Morrice, S ^[1]

---

1. BNR Ltd., Denver, CO (United States)

The junction of the American and Caribbean plates in Belize has created a complex structural setting for oil and gas exploration. Recent seismic offshore Belize has been used to identify three structural provinces, from west to east: a shallow thrust zone, a narrow upthrown wrench faulted zone and a deeper extensional basin, named the Gladden Pull-Apart Basin. Hydrocarbon leakage from recent fault movement appears to have depleted the shallow structures to the west, but the pull-apart basin has a thick sequence of low-frequency clay-dominated sealing rocks with the potential to preserve hydrocarbon accumulations in Cretaceous carbonate banks. These buried carbonate are of the same age and depositional environment of Mexico's Golden Lane/Tabasco Reforma carbonate banks which are world class giant fields. The Belize and Mexican carbonate banks are within the same Cretaceous depositional basin, the Peten Basin. Seismic interpretations in offshore Belize have been integrated with gravity and magnetic surveys. This provides additional support for the deep extensional basin. The location of the thick Cretaceous carbonate banks is better interpreted with the integration of these three geophysical tools. Airborne geochemical surveys were used to detect the presence of oil seeps on the east and west basin margins.

• OSTI ID: 6065881
• Report Number(s): CONF-930306-; CODEN: AABUD2
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Vol. 77:2; Conference: International congress of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Caracas (Venezuela), 14-17 Mar 1993; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
03 NATURAL GAS
BELIZE
SEISMIC SURVEYS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
SEEPS
GEOCHEMICAL SURVEYS
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
EXPLORATION
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
MAGNETIC SURVEYS
PLATES
CENTRAL AMERICA
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
LATIN AMERICA
MESOZOIC ERA
SURVEYS
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
030200 - Natural Gas- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration