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AAPG Bulletin, Preliminary version published online Ahead of Print 15 October 2025.

Copyright © 2025. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1306/09302524132

Giant submarine fans in a greenhouse world – the Paleogene Wilcox Group of the northern Gulf of Mexico

Michael L. Sweet, Tim Whiteaker, Annie Walker, Marcie Purkey, Jazmin Villeda, and John Snedden

Jackson School of Geosciences, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin , 10100 Burnet Road (R2200) J. J Pickle Research Campus Bldg. 196 (ROC) Austin, Texas 78758

Ahead of Print Abstract

The Paleocene-Eocene Wilcox Group in the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin (GOM) records the history of very large and long-lived submarine fans that formed during global greenhouse conditions (i.e., no continental icesheets). These sand-rich, submarine-fan deposits are up to 8000 ft (2400 m) - thick and cover an area of at least 66,000 mi2 (170,000 km2). They were deposited over 14.5 m.y. and are important oil and gas reservoirs. Our mapping of sediment across different depositional environments suggests that up to half of the sand routed to the basin was deposited in these submarine fans. The high volume of sand routed to deep water was a function of high but relatively stable sea level; large, integrated fluvial systems that drained the mountains of the Laramide Orogeny; narrow continental shelves; and long-lived, shelf-penetrating submarine canyons that provided an efficient connection between deltas and submarine fans.

Due to the vast areal extent and prominent thickness of these submarine-fan reservoirs, this play has had a high exploration success ratio (59%), despite being below the floor for direct detection of hydrocarbons for seismic data (i.e., a non-DHI play).

While the volume of sediment routed to deep water is massive, these sandstones are very fine grained. This fine grain size, combined with a high silt content, a feldspar and lithic-rich composition and burial diagenesis results in low permeability. It has taken advances in drilling and completion technology to open the door to commercializing these large, but complex reservoirs.

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Please cite this AAPG Bulletin Ahead of Print article as:

Michael L. Sweet, Tim Whiteaker, Annie Walker, Marcie Purkey, Jazmin Villeda, John Snedden: Giant submarine fans in a greenhouse world – the Paleogene Wilcox Group of the northern Gulf of Mexico, (in press; preliminary version published online Ahead of Print 15 October 2025: AAPG Bulletin, DOI:10.1306/09302524132.

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