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A Geophysical Delineation of a Normal Fault Within the Gulf Coastal Plain, Montgomery County, Texas

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A Geophysical Delineation of a Normal Fault Within the Gulf Coastal Plain, Montgomery County, Texas Stephen F. Austin State University SFA ScholarWorks Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-12-2018 A Geophysical Delineation of A Normal Fault Within the Gulf Coastal Plain, Montgomery County, Texas Danielle Minteer [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds Part of the Geology Commons, and the Geophysics and Seismology Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Repository Citation Minteer, Danielle, "A Geophysical Delineation of A Normal Fault Within the Gulf Coastal Plain, Montgomery County, Texas" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 153. https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/153 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Geophysical Delineation of A Normal Fault Within the Gulf Coastal Plain, Montgomery County, Texas Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This thesis is available at SFA ScholarWorks: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/153 A GEOPHYSICAL DELINEATION OF A NORMAL FAULT WITHIN THE GULF COASTAL PLAIN, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TEXAS By Danielle Renee Minteer, Bachelor of Science Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Stephen F. Austin State University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY May, 2018 A GEOPHYSICAL DELINEATION OF A NORMAL FAULT WITHIN THE GULF COASTAL PLAIN, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TEXAS By DANIELLE RENEE MINTEER, Bachelor of Science APPROVED: ______________________________________ Dr. Wesley Brown, Thesis Director ______________________________________ Dr. Melinda Faulkner, Committee Member ______________________________________ Dr. Chris Barker, Committee Member ______________________________________ Dr. Joseph Musser, Committee Member ____________________________________ Pauline Sampson, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School ii ABSTRACT The Gulf Coast of Texas has been a known hydrocarbon basin for many years with various structural trapping mechanisms such as anticlines, faults and salt domes. While most large salt domes have been extensively studied in the Gulf Coastal Plain, many smaller normal faults have not been studied in detail. This research study employs an integrated geophysical approach to mapping the Big Barn fault in Montgomery County, Texas. This fault is located on the Gulf Coastal Plain and is approximately 20 miles north of Houston, Texas. Most normal faults in the Gulf Coastal Plain formed as a result of the Gulf of Mexico basin which started during the Jurassic Period as a result of the breakup of Pangea and the rifting of North and South America. The Big Barn fault formed during the Jurassic but there is evidence that the fault plane has been recently reactivated. Within the past 20 years, extensive deformation and fractures within the vicinity of the fault have formed on Interstate Highway 45 (IH 45) and caused damage to nearby businesses and residences. In this study gravity, electrical resistivity surveys and traditional mapping techniques were conducted to determine the cause of deformation and the extent of faulting. Two-dimensional inverted resistivity models were made to determine the structures and stratigraphy of the area. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank the many people that have helped me complete my thesis work. I first thank my thesis advisor Dr. Brown for being supportive of my research and for being a great mentor. I am also sincerely grateful to all of the committee members who oversaw my thesis work. I am thankful to the many friends and family that helped me complete my field work, including Justin Chavez, Melanie Seymour, Adam Chavez and Monique Gonzales. I am thankful for the Callahan family and their endearing support of my thesis work. I am also thankful to the friends that critiqued my work, Kayleigh Davis and Daniel Savarese. I am also deeply grateful for the help and encouragement from my parents Cheryl Lambeth and James Minteer. Finally, I would finally like to thank my husband Joe Callahan and my son, William Callahan for their endless faith and love for me and support for my fieldwork. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. iii CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 PREVIOUS WORKS .......................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 2 ..................................................................................................................13 2.1 REGIONAL GEOLOGY ................................................................................................... 13 2.2 STRUCTURE .................................................................................................................... 15 2.2.1 IAPETAN RIFTED MARGIN .................................................................................... 18 2.2.2 GULFIAN TECTONIC CYCLE ................................................................................ 20 2.2.3 GULF COAST GEOSYNCLINE .............................................................................. 23 2.2.4 THE SABINE UPLIFT ............................................................................................... 25 2.2.5 LULING-MEXIA-TALCO FAULT ZONE ................................................................. 28 2.2.6 BALCONES FAULT ZONE ...................................................................................... 30 2.2.7 MOUNT ENTERPRISE FAULT ZONE .................................................................. 32 2.2.8 EAST TEXAS EMBAYMENT................................................................................... 33 2.2.9 RIO GRANDE EMBAYMENT .................................................................................. 34 2.2.10 SALT DOMES .......................................................................................................... 34 2.3 STRATIGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 37 2.3.1 PRE-JURASSIC ........................................................................................................ 39 2.3.2 JURASSIC .................................................................................................................. 40 iii 2.3.3 CRETACEOUS .......................................................................................................... 40 2.3.4 EOCENE TO MIOCENE .......................................................................................... 43 2.3.5 PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE ......................................................................... 46 2.3.5.1 LISSIE FORMATION ............................................................................................. 46 2.3.5.2 WILLIS FORMATION ............................................................................................ 48 CHAPTER 3 ..................................................................................................................49 3.1 GRAVITY THEORY .................................................................................................49 3.1.1 APPLIED GRAVITY CORRECTIONS ....................................................................... 53 3.1.2 DRIFT CORRECTION .............................................................................................. 53 3.1.3 ELEVATION CORRECTION ................................................................................... 54 3.2 ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY THEORY ....................................................................57 CHAPTER 4 ..................................................................................................................66 4.0 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 66 4.1 GRAVIMETRY METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 67 4.1.1 LiDAR .......................................................................................................................... 70 4.1.2 DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING ........................................................... 70 4.2 CAPACITIVELY COUPLED RESISTIVITY METHODOLOGY .................................. 76 4.2.1 FIELD SETUP ............................................................................................................ 79 4.2.2 DATA PROCESSING ............................................................................................... 80 4.2.3 PSEUDOSECTIONS ................................................................................................ 82 4.2.4 DATA MISFIT ............................................................................................................. 85 4.3 MULTI-ELECTRODE ELECTRICAL
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