ABSTRACT

The most prominent structural features in the nine township study area are the Wilzetta fault and the adjacent Seminole-Cushing ridge. The late Morrowan Wichita orogeny was followed by a period of erosion during which dendritic patterns were incised into the Mississippian strata, particularly on the horsts. There are indications that minor amounts of Atokan shales were subsequently deposited, and there followed a series of transgressive-regressive cycles of the "Cherokee" sea. The unconformity sands are considered to be marginal marine, and were deposited in drainage axes on the horst with some spilling over to be deposited in low areas to the west. Booch sand appears to be absent. The Bartlesville is interpreted to be mostly shoal sand deposited on the fringe of a deltaic distributary system. Mapping indicates that the Red Fork is part of a complex deltaic distributary system. Correlation of the Skinner sands was difficult due to the absence of the Verdigris and Senora lime markers. The lower Skinner sands appear to have been deposited as coalescing stream-mouth bars flanked by shoals, and the upper Skinner sand configuration is the result of a west-east deltaic distributary flanked by crevasse splay and interdistributary bay shoal deposits. Prue sands appear to have a marine beach and barrier bar origin. Most of the Cherokee fields in the study area produce from combination stratigraphic-structural traps.