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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
GCAGS Transactions
Abstract
Reddell Salt Dome of Louisiana: Geotemperatures and Halokinetics
Madhurendu Bhushan Kumar (1)
ABSTRACT
The trap of Reddell field, in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, is a complexly-faulted domal structure, on a deepseated salt plug (salt top at 12,368 ft or 3,770 m). The 10,000 ft (3,048 m) -- level isotherms reflects the structural configuration of the dome. Some of the wells in the area have encountered high temperatures with geopressure. Some of the high-temperature wells are hydro-pressured, and are located on the crestal part of the structure. This is attributed to the functioning of the deep-seated salt plug as an efficient thermal conduit.
Of about 70 wells drilled in the area, several have penetrated the Wilcox (lower Eocene). They provide reasonably adequate controls for a study of the interplay between the sedimentation and salt movements close to the northern rim of the Gulf Coast salt basin. On the basis of electric log correlations, the stratigraphic section of the Eocene through the Miocene was divided into twenty-twe intervals, for which isopachous maps were constructed, which are presented.
The isopachous maps reveal that the centers of uplift shifted with time, while the structural growth of the dome progressed in varying degrees. Considering the stratigraphic thinning as an approximate measure of salt uplift, the growth rates are estimated at 0.06 mm/yr for the Wilcox (lower Eocene), 0.03 mm/yr for the Claiborne upper Eocene), 0.01 mm/yr for the Jackson-Vicksburg-Frio (upper Eocene-Oligocene) and 0.02 mm/yr for the Miocene. The lateral shifts of depositional thins are interpreted in terms of spines of motion, active at different rates, at different times. The overall patterns of salt movements through the time intervals mapped suggest that the salt rose first to the south, and finally to the north, toward the end of the Miocene. The northward salt movement appears to be related to the emplacement of Pine Prairie, Eola and Cheneyville domes that mark the northernmost edge of the Gulf Coast salt basin.
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