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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
2005. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
DOI:10.1306/08050404013
Origin and development of plains-type folds in the mid-continent (United States) during the late Paleozoic
Daniel F. Merriam1
1Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66047; [email protected]
AUTHORS
Dan Merriam is a senior research scientist (emeritus) with the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas and a former distinguished professor at Syracuse University and Wichita State University. For the past decade, he has been studying the structure and structural
development of plains-type folds in the mid-continent and their relation to the subsurface temperature field and occurrence of petroleum.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank Rick Groshong of the University of Alabama, Richard Williams of the University of Tennessee, Charles Gilbert of the University of Oklahoma, and Andrea Frster of the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, for reading a preliminary version of the manuscript; Pieter Berendsen and Lynn Watney of the Kansas Geological Survey and Neil Suneson of the Oklahoma Geological Survey also offered helpful suggestions to improve its content and presentation. A preliminary version of this paper (Merriam and F
rster, 1997a, b) was presented at the regional AAPG meeting in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and at the 87th Jahrestagung der Geologischen Vereinigung e.V. meeting in J
lich, Germany.
ABSTRACT
Plains-type folds are local, subtle anticlines formed in the thin sedimentary package overlying a shallow, crystalline basement on the craton. They are small in areal extent (usually less than 1–3 km2 [0.4–1.2 mi2]), and their amplitude increases with depth (usually tens of meters), which is mainly the result of differential compaction of sediments (usually clastic units) over tilted, rigid, basement fault blocks. The development of these structural
features by continuous but intermittent movement of the basement fault blocks in the late Paleozoic in the United States mid-continent is substantiated by a record of stratigraphic and sedimentological evidence.
The recurrent structural
movement, which reflects adjustment to external stresses, is expressed by the change in thickness of stratigraphic units over the crest of the fold compared to the flanks. By plotting the change in thickness for different stratigraphic units of anticlines on different fault blocks, it is possible to determine the timing of movement of the blocks that reflect
structural
adjustment. These readjustments are confirmed by sedimentological evidence, such as convolute, soft-sediment deformation features and small intraformational faults.
The stratigraphic interval change in thickness for numerous structures in the Cherokee, Forest City, and Salina basins and on the Nemaha anticline of the mid-continent United States was determined and compared for location and timing of the adjustments. Most of the adjustment occurred during and after time of deposition of the Permian–Pennsylvanian clastic units, which, in turn, reflect tectonic disturbance in adjacent areas, and the largest amount of movement on the plains-type structures occurred on those nearest and semiparallel to major positive features, such as the Nemaha anticline.
Depending on the time of origin and development of plains-type folds, they may control the entrapment and occurrence of oil and gas.
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