Vicksburg Group carbonates: a look at Gulf Coast Paleogene carbonate banks
Throughout the Paleogene of the northern Gulf coastal plain large deltaic systems dumped thick sequences of lithoclastic sediments onto the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. In between major deltaic pulses, thick carbonate banks or reefs developed in the vicinity of the broad Wiggins uplift of southern Mississippi and Alabama. Because the present-day out-crop of the Oligocene Vicksburg Group in Mississippi and Alabama cuts across sedimentary strike, all of the component lithofacies of a typical Paleogene carbonate bank complex of the northern Gulf coastal plain are exposed. By relating outcrop lithology to electric log character, the various lithofacies of the Vicksburg Group can be mapped throughout its subsurface extent. Similar inferences and maps can be made for the other Paleogene carbonate complexes. All of these environments, with their slightly different faunal constituents, can be found in the other carbonate units of the Gulf Coast Paleogene. The Tatum and the Salt Mountain Limestones have coral-algal community shelf margins, whereas the Cook Mountain, Ocala, and Vicksburg have a slightly deeper water foraminiferal-algal community at the margin. Time-equivalent lithoclastic deposition to the west prevented westward expansion much beyond central Louisiana. During the Miocene, bank complex communities were displaced farther to the east by continued Rocky Mountain-derived sediments coupled with a major epeirogenic uplift of the southern Appalachians.
- Research Organization:
- Amoco Production Co., New Orleans, LA
- OSTI ID:
- 6534000
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8310301-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Vol. 67:9; Conference: American Association of Petroleum Geologists eastern section meeting, Carbondale, IL, USA, 3 Oct 1983
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Stratigraphy and depositional environments of Vicksburgian Oligocene of northern Gulf Coastal Plain
Depositional systems distribution of the lower Oligocene Vicksburg Formation, TX
Related Subjects
CARBONATE ROCKS
STRATIGRAPHY
GULF COAST
CORRELATIONS
ELECTRIC LOGGING
FORAMINIFERA
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
TERTIARY PERIOD
ANIMALS
CENOZOIC ERA
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGY
INVERTEBRATES
MICROORGANISMS
NORTH AMERICA
PROTOZOA
ROCKS
SARCODINA
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USA
WELL LOGGING
580100* - Geology & Hydrology- (-1989)