ABSTRACT

Regional surface and subsurface studies indicate that thick deltaic (Queen City Formation) and thin shelf (Reklaw and Weches Formations) sequences compose the stratigraphic interval between the top of the Carrizo Sand and the base of the Sparta Formation. In East Texas, the Queen City Formation accumulated as part of a high-constructive, lobate delta system; and in South Texas, as part of a high-destructive, wave-dominated delta system. In South Texas, principal facies are meanderbelt sand, lagoonal mud, stacked coastal barriers, and prodelta shelf mud facies. In East Texas, delta plain, delta front, and prodelta facies are dominant; and in Central Texas, the principal facies are strandplain sands originated by southwestward longshore drift of sediments from the high-constructive delta system.

Facies distribution, composition, and size of the deltas in East Texas are similar to lobes of the Holocene high-constructive Mississippi delta system and to ancient deltas in the lower part of the Wilcox and in the Jackson Groups of the Gulf Coast Basin. Deltaic sediments of South Texas are comparable to Pleistocene high-destructive, wave-dominated facies on the Surinam coast, to the Holocene Rhone delta system, and to ancient deltas in the upper part of the Wilcox Group.

Queen City deltas prograded gulfward over shelf muds and glauconites of the Reklaw Formation; they are overlain by comparable shelf facies of the Weches Formation. In East Texas, deltaic facies wedge out eastward. Terrigenous clastics of the high-destructive deltas extend southward into Mexico.

Hydrocarbons are produced from thin strike-oriented sands downdip from the belt of maximum sand thickness of the high-destructive deltas in South Texas; only a minor amount of oil and gas has been obtained from delta front and distributary channel sands of the high-constructive deltas in East Texas.