ABSTRACT

In south and offshore Louisiana, regional surface and subsurface studies from the eastern part of the High Island Area through the western part of the south Timbalier area show that Pleistocene sediments from the Mississippi, Red, and Sabine River systems can be recognized and mapped for exploration purposes. The Pleistocene section has been divided into eleven stratigraphic units, the oldest of which can be traced to the outcrop of the High Terrace in Louisiana and Mississippi. The deposition of clastic sediments in each unit is related closely to a major cycle of sea-level change with the development of an erosional unconformity overlain by a coarse-grained substratum and a fine-grained topstratum. Each unit contains deltaic, shelf, and slope sand bodies mapped along depositional axes for the three river systems. The distribution of sand along these axes constitutes prospective trends for petroleum exploration from nearshore out to sea floor water depths of greater than 3000 feet on the modern continental slope.