Chemostratigraphy, Paleoceanography, and Sequence Stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian – Permian Section in the Midland Basin O
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CHEMOSTRATIGRAPHY, PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, AND SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF THE PENNSYLVANIAN – PERMIAN SECTION IN THE MIDLAND BASIN OF WEST TEXAS, WITH FOCUS ON THE WOLFCAMP FORMATION by MILTON CORTEZ III Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN GEOLOGY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON MAY 2012 Copyright © by Milton Cortez III 2012 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to thank God for providing my wife and me sufficient patience, strength, and love to achieve our goals over the last few years. Additionally, I would like to sincerely thank my wife for her support, encouragement, and unfailing love through these stressful times. Also, I truly thank my advisor, Dr. Harry Rowe, for his guidance, insight, and provision during the last two years. Major thanks go to the Geology Department Chair at the University of Texas at Arlington, Dr. John Wickham, for all of his assistance and participation on my thesis committee. I would also like to thank several members of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, in Austin, Texas. First, I would like to thank Dr. Stephen Ruppel and the Mudrock Systems Research Lab (M.S.R.L.) consortium for providing access to several cores and funding for travel expenses. Also, I would like to especially thank Dr. Scott Hamlin and Robert Baumgardner for their collaborative work on the cores used for my research. Their meticulous core descriptions and interpretations have been a key factor in the final product of my research. Dr. Hamlin also provided many of the detailed maps and well log interpretations presented in the thesis, and served on my thesis committee. Similarly, Mr. Baumgardner was an essential sounding board and collaborator throughout several stages of my research. An often overlooked group that I would like to thank is the B.E.G. core repository staff. Nathan Ivicic, James Donnelly, Kenneth Edwards, and Josh Lambert were an integral part of my physical data collection process. Their incredible courtesy and hard work should not go unrecognized. I would also like to thank Liz Clechenko, Terra George, and Jason Stein from ConocoPhillips for assisting in the attainment and interpretation of XRD data. iii I am very grateful for many members of the geochemistry research group at University of Texas at Arlington. I would like to especially thank Niki Hughes for the development of the calibrations used to interpret raw XRF data. Also, I would like to thank Krystin Robinson, Robert Nikirk, Brian Turner, Karen McCreight, and Pukar Mainali for their help in the lab and as sounding boards for ideas and results. Special thanks go to Cory and Jessica Daniels for their hospitality throughout my writing process. Thanks for putting up with my clutter and re-appropriation of the kitchen table. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and extended family for their lifelong encouragement and support. April 12, 2012 iv ABSTRACT CHEMOSTRATIGRAPHY, PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, AND SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF THE PENNSYLVANIAN-PERMIAN SECTION IN THE MIDLAND BASIN OF WEST TEXAS, WITH FOCUS ON THE WOLFCAMP FORMATION Milton Cortez III, M.S. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2012 Supervising Professor: Harold Rowe The late Pennsylvanian to early Permian rocks (Wolfcampian and Leonardian) of the Midland Basin represent a single lithologic unit composed primarily of calcareous mudrocks, siliceous mudrocks, muddy carbonate-clast conglomerates, and skeletal packstones/grainstones at the approximate depositional center located in Reagan County, Texas. Pure versions of these lithologic end-members are discretely distributed among a multitude of transitional lithofacies. The Midland Basin evolved in the foreland of the Ouachita Fold-belt from Mississippian to early Permian time along-side several sub-basins of the Permian Basin. These basins were formed by disseverance and uplift associated with the continental collision of Laurasia and Gondwana to form Pangea in the Late Paleozoic. Wolfcampian and Leonardian clastics were deposited into the basin as a result of a rapid increase in accommodation due to basin subsidence and proximal uplift of the Central Basin Platform, in concurrence with glacially-driven eustatic sea-level fluctuations influenced by the Late Paleozoic v Ice Age (LPIA). Various aspects of Penn-Perm strata that were studied include degree of basin restriction, redox conditions, sediment input, paleoceanography, bulk geochemistry, and sequence stratigraphy. Four drill cores located in Reagan and Martin Counties were scanned at a 1-foot interval with a hand-held energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence (HH-ED-XRF) spectrometer to provide quantitative analysis of major (e.g. Fe, Si, Al) and trace (e.g. Mo, Cr, V) elements. In addition, total organic carbon (TOC), total inorganic carbon (TIC), X-Ray 13 Diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, and stable isotopes of organic carbon (δ Corg) were analyzed in two of the cores. Focus of the project was to thoroughly define the chemostratigraphy of a continuous core through the Leonardian and Wolfcampian strata in Reagan County. Secondarily, study of intermittent core through the Spraberry, Dean, Strawn, and Atoka Formations in the Martin County core provided insight into the overall evolution of the Midland Basin from Atokan to the Guadalupian time. The area of study is located off of the shelf slope into marginal basin settings, and is oriented parallel to the Eastern Shelf between the Ozona Arch and the Eastern Shelf Nose. The physical paleoceanography of the Penn-Perm section reveals an overall high degree of basin restriction at the time of deposition, while large scale study revealed an overarching trend of basin deepening along-side an increase in primary production seen in 13 several scales of cyclic stair-stepping negative δ Corg excursions. Fluctuations in the degree of restriction and water mass mixing were studied through the chemical paleoceanographic interpretation of several distinct zones enriched in redox sensitive trace metals (Mo, V, Ni, and Zn) and/or detrital sediments (Ca, Fe, Si, Mg, and K) normalized to clay. Individual zones labeled Detrital (DZ), Detrital-Anoxic (DAZ), and Anoxic (AZ) were linked to changes in basin dynamics and ultimately associated with a complete LPIA-driven lowstand-to-highstand sequence stratigraphic cycle. Ultimately, a thorough chemostratigraphy was developed on Late Pennsylvanian through Permian age mudrocks. Correlations between chemostratigraphy, paleoceanography, and sequence stratigraphy have enhanced the ability to assess the vi economic potential of Midland Basin Penn-Perm rocks as an unconventional source/reservoir. Furthermore, the study has laid the groundwork for future attempts to make similar correlations between mudrock geochemistry to marine basin dynamics. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………..………..….. .........................................iii ABSTRACT……………………………………..………..….. ............................................................... v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS……………………………………..………..….. ...................................... xi LIST OF TABLES……………………………………..………..….. ....................................................xiv Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………..………..….. ..................................... 1 1.1 Purpose of Study .............................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Hydrocarbon Research .................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Mudrocks .......................................................................................... 5 1.1.3 Permian Basin .................................................................................. 7 1.2 Previous Research ........................................................................................... 8 1.2.1 Geochemical Analysis ...................................................................... 8 1.2.1.1 Geochemical Proxies ........................................................ 13 1.2.2 Previous Geochemical Studies ...................................................... 22 1.3 Geological Information ................................................................................... 23 1.3.1 Geographic Setting ........................................................................ 23 1.3.2 Structural Geology and Tectonics .................................................. 24 1.3.3 Stratigraphy .................................................................................... 28 1.3.4 Paleoclimate ................................................................................... 30 1.3.5 Lithologic Description ..................................................................... 32 1.4 Research Objectives and Hypothesis ............................................................ 34 1.4.1 Research Objectives ...................................................................... 34 1.4.2 Hypothesis ..................................................................................... 35 viii 2. METHODS ................................................................................................................... 36 2.1 Core Information ............................................................................................ 36 2.1.1 Cores Analyzed .............................................................................. 36 2.2 Hand-Held Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (HH-ED-XRF) Analysis.................................................................