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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
DOI: 10.1306/10171615156
Sediment source regions and paleotransport of the Upper Jurassic Norphlet Formation, eastern Gulf of Mexico
Bryan Hunt,1 Delores M. Robinson,2 Amy L. Weislogel,3 and Ryan C. Ewing4
1Department of Geological Sciences and Center for Sedimentary Basin Studies, The University of Alabama, 201 7th Ave., Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487; present address: SandRidge Energy, 123 Robert S. Kerr Boulevard, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102; [email protected]
2Department of Geological Sciences and Center for Sedimentary Basin Studies, The University of Alabama, 201 7th Ave., Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487; [email protected]
3Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, 98 Beechurst Ave., Morgantown, West Virginia 26506; [email protected]
4Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, 3115 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843; [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The Upper Jurassic Norphlet Formation is an eolian sandstone and important hydrocarbon reservoir that overlies the Louann Salt in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Because the sand was concentrated into dunes formed by Late Jurassic winds, determining the source areas and paleotransport direction of the sand can improve predictions of the distribution of the dune facies around the GOM. Paleo–wind-blown sediment transport into the proto-GOM was controlled by wind direction and magnitude and the extant topography of the basin and adjacent uplands. Analysis
of the Norphlet Formation in the eastern GOM shows that wadis and alluvial fans controlled by the location of highs were the primary route for introducing sediment of varied provenance into the eolian erg. Eolian transport directions interpreted from dip-
log
analyses are south directed in southern Alabama and west to northwest directed in western Florida. Interpretations of regional, two-dimensional, prestack-depth-migrated seismic data show that erosional incision of the Middle Ground arch occurred prior to and during the time of Norphlet deposition; this as
well
as preexisting lows in the basement topography may have facilitated basinward sand transport of sediment that fed the Norphlet Formation erg preserved in the deep-water subsurface eastern GOM.
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