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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 41 (1957)

Issue: 2. (February)

First Page: 352

Last Page: 352

Title: Structure of Wheeler Ridge Oil Field: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Archer H. Warne

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

Wheeler Ridge is a prominent topographic feature which stands out slightly from the southern margin of the San Joaquin Valley. This ridge is the surface expression of an anticline which contains nine or more oil-producing zones. The structure in all zones is that of an asymmetrical closed anticline, but the series of strata are separated into a hanging wall and a footwall group by a low-angle thrust fault. This thrust fault is nowhere exposed in outcrop, and it was long after discovery of the field that it became a known structural feature.

Maps and cross sections indicate that the movement on this fault was complex, and that, although the hanging wall and footwall anticlines are similar, they are genetically unrelated. Hanging wall structure therefore gave little clue, during early deeper exploration, to axial trends and the whereabouts of structural highs in the footwall block. Both structural blocks contain lesser faults, mainly of the thrust type. One of these is extensive enough to form an intermediate block containing several oil pools.

The Eocene rocks are cut by high-angle faults which cause anomalies in thickness and position of sands, and oil-water contact offsets.

Wheeler Ridge lies within the angle formed by the San Andreas and Garlock faults and is 12 miles north of their point of intersection. Also it lies on the probable extension of the steep buried White Wolf fault. Asymmetry of folds, multiple thrusting, and a component of strike-slip movement are effects to be expected in the area of the San Andreas-Garlock fault systems.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists