ABSTRACT

Oft repeated, popular assumptions about the structure and sediments of the Florida peninsula have influenced geologic thinking to such an extent, that until recently, exploratory failures were thought to condemn the area. If "Old Plays" are to become "New Pays", new ideas must be found that are compelling enough to modify popular old assumptions.

Along one trend in southern Florida, twelve oil fields have been found, with an estimated 250 million stock-tank barrels of oil-in-place. Continued discovery of oil and gas in new fields and along new trends may be partly insured by structural mapping of the three types of basement rocks under peninsular Florida; by testing the first porosity in Paleozoic basement; by projecting the structural influence of basement troughs, paleo-valleys, ridges and hills into overlying sediments; by distinguishing between two interfingering sedimentary platforms above basement -- a northern one deposited on a convex floor, and a thicker, somewhat lower southern one overlying a flat-to-concave floor. Both platforms have wide areas of contemporaneous deposition and erosion, giving to each multiple pinchout possibilities in which hydrocarbons may have accumulated.