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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

Abstract


Gas Shale in the Rocky Mountains and Beyond, 2008
Pages 44-83

Chapter Two: Stratigraphic Relationships and Distribution of Source Rocks in the Greater Rocky Mountain Region

Fred F. Meissner, Jane Woodward, J. L. Clayton

Abstract

The occurrence of oil and gas accumulations is widespread throughout many areas of the Rocky Mountain region; however, the position of established producing zones within the total stratigraphic section and in given basins is somewhat erratic. Modern concepts of petroleum geology indicate that the overall distribution of hydrocarbons and their specific species (e.g., oil, wet gas/condensate or dry gas) within an area or stratigraphic unit is ultimately controlled by their relation to the source rocks from which they were derived. The purpose of this paper is to attempt a preliminary synthesis of information concerning this relation.

Placement of source rocks within a regional depositional framework indicates that they are generally associated with specific depositional environments contained in recognizable cycles of transgression and regression. When placed in a framework of cyclic depositional sequences, the source rocks can be easily related to the geometry of the associated reservoirs that they charge and to the seals that restrict hydrocarbon migration and control accumulation. Sequences which contain all of the elements involved in the process of hydrocarbon generation from source rock to consequent migration and accumulation constitute what may be termed natural geologic hydrocarbon machines.

A series of maps have been prepared that show distributions of source rocks within major depositional sequences that have acted as effective hydrocarbon machines.


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