Our Gulf Coast region is, in a sense, magical. It is widely thought to hold the most important oil and gas reserves of the lower 48 United States--found and unfound. This northern limb of a continuously evolving petroliferous basin may be the finest place in the world to observe and confirm the workings of an active oil and gas-making system. Not only is it remarkably accessible, but the quantity and variety of information available are probably unmatched anywhere.

A few simple, but vital, principles may help to explain the Gulf Coast magic. Those who know the Gulf Coast are qualified to judge the validity of the reasoning.

Attention centers on interactive sediment-fluid relationships characteristic of shelf and hinge-line situations. Differential compaction, subsidence, growth-faulting, diapirism, and abnormal pressures are relevant to water movement. The hydrologic interplay of offshore compaction effluent and onshore meteoric recharge enhances the entrapment of water-borne materials (especially hydrocarbons) in the coastal belt. Probably, the same magic can be projected backward (and forward) in the geologic history of the Gulf Coast province, explaining many of the inland productive trends paralleling the present coastal belt.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 1436------------