Depositional Controls and Sequence Stratigraphy of Lacustrine to Marine
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DEPOSITIONAL CONTROLS AND SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF LACUSTRINE TO MARINE TRANSGRESSIVE DEPOSITS IN A RIFT BASIN, LOWER CRETACEOUS BLUFF MESA, INDIO MOUNTAINS, WEST TEXAS ANDREW ANDERSON Master’s Program in Geology APPROVED: Katherine Giles, Ph.D., Chair Richard Langford, Ph.D. Vanessa Lougheed, Ph.D. Charles Ambler, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by Andrew Anderson 2017 DEDICATION To my parents for teaching me to be better than I was the day before. DEPOSITIONAL CONTROLS AND SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF LACUSTRINE TO MARINE TRANSGRESSIVE DEPOSITS IN A RIFT BASIN, LOWER CRETACEOUS BLUFF MESA, INDIO MOUNTAINS, WEST TEXAS by ANDREW ANDERSON, B.S. THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Department of Geological Sciences THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO December 2017 ProQuest Number:10689125 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 10689125 Published by ProQuest LLC ( 2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the Fall of 2014, Dr. Kate Giles agreed to take a chance on a geologist from Chicago with limited fieldwork and no exploration experience. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be part of Institute of Tectonic Studies and especially for the patience and guidance provided by Kate. It has made all the difference in transforming myself from a student into a scientist. A mountain of additional thanks goes to Dr. Rip Langford for introducing me to the Indio Mountains and providing me with incredible support during fieldwork. I thank members of the UTEP Biology Department, Dr. Vanessa Lougheed for serving as committee member and Dr. Jerry Johnson for support with coordination in the study area. I also thank Dr. Benjamin Brunner and Dr. Gail Arnold for guidance on geochemical problems, as well as for allowing me liberal access to a backyard rocksaw. I also owe a great debt to a number of my Professors from the University of Illinois at Chicago for sparking my interest in geology, specifically Dr. Roy Plotnick and Dr. Steve Guggenheim. I am extremely grateful to Nila Matsler for technical support as well as her good old fashioned Midwest attitude that went a long way to helping me feel at home in ITS. I’m reminded of the old proverb “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together”. This certainly applies to my colleagues that have worked tirelessly along side me in the field. I am extraordinarily grateful to Matthew Fox, Andre Llanos, Alan Vennemann, Marc Lucero, Myra Guerrero, Samantha Ramirez, Guillermo Vargas, Jose Cervantes, and Ryan Jimenez for various contributions towards fieldwork. I am honored that I was able to work alongside with everyone. I would also like to thank Irish, my parents, and my friends, for supporting me throughout this incredible journey. v ABSTRACT Successful hydrocarbon exploration in former rift basins of the South Atlantic pre-salt has generated interest in understanding depositional, diagenetic, and stratigraphic controls on pre-salt deposits. However, most studies to date have focused on attributes and controls on pre- salt lacustrine carbonate reservoir systems and little work has been done on the overlying marine sealing facies. Currently our standard sequence stratigraphic model of marine transgression of rift systems involves a single pulse of marine flooding over fluvially-incised valleys resulting in backstepping of fluvial and estuarine siliciclastic facies within the erosionally confined zone of an incised valley. However, the pre-salt systems of the South Atlantic involve deep and broad alkaline lakes containing microbial carbonate facies that were deposited on rift structurally generated geomorphic surfaces. Using an outcrop analogue from the Indio Mountains of West Texas, this study aims to provide a depositional and stratigraphic model for marine transgression of lacustrine rift basin sediments that are similar in age, tectonic regime, and climatic setting to the pre-salt sealing facies of the South Atlantic. The Lower Cretaceous Bluff Mesa Formation was deposited on the eastern margin of the Chihuahuan Trough failed rift and is exposed within multiple Laramide-age thrust panels in the Indio Mountains of West Texas. The mixed carbonate-siliciclastic system thins from 360 to 220 meters across the study area and contains five non-marine lithofacies and seven marine lithofacies. The depositional facies stack into five fourth-order sequences that record the transition from fluvio-lacustrine to shallow marine deposition. Sequences 1-2 are characterized by fluvio-lacustrine sandstones during lowstand systems tracts (LST) and lacustrine siltstones or thin marine wackestones during highstand systems tracts (HST). Sequences 3-5 are composed of exclusively marine facies characterized by shoreface to shelfal sandstones during transgressive vi systems tracts (TST) and thick ooid grainstones and fossiliferous packstones deposited during HST. Sequence 2 records a significant rise in base level and the onset of marine deposition with LST fluvial sandstones overlain by thick marine carbonates during HST. The presence of thin marine limestones in sequences 1and 2 suggest that periodic marine incursion occurred during HST, but the basin was still primarily an enclosed rift lake. This idea is supported by analysis of carbonate associated sulfate from septarian nodules of lacustrine and marine origin. The observed succession of mixed terrestrial-marine sequences suggests transgression of rift basins involves multiple pulses of marine incursion. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... V ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ VI TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. VIII LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES .................................................................................... X 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 2. GEOLOGICAL SETTING ........................................................................................... 9 2.1 THE CHIHUAHUA TROUGH ............................................................................................... 9 2.2 THE INDIO MOUNTAINS ................................................................................................. 17 2.3 THE BLUFF MESA AS AN ANALOG TO THE SOUTH ATLANTIC RIFT BASIN ....................... 22 3. METHODS ............................................................................................................. 25 4. FACIES ASSOCIATIONS ......................................................................................... 27 4.1 FLUVIAL FACIES ASSOCIATION (FA-1) ......................................................................... 27 4.1.1 Matrix-Supported Pebble Conglomerate (Fc) ........................................................... 35 4.1.2 Trough Cross-Bedded Quartz Arenite (Fs) ............................................................... 37 4.1.3 Horizontal Laminated Quartz Arenite (Fsl) .............................................................. 37 4.1.4 Depositional Environment of FA-1 ............................................................................. 39 4.2 LACUSTRINE FACIES ASSOCIATION (FA-2) ................................................................... 44 4.2.1 Burrowed Fine-Grained Quartz Arenite (Ls) ............................................................ 46 4.2.2 Massive Nodule-Bearing Mudstone (Lm) ................................................................ 46 4.2.3 Depositional Environment of FA-2 .......................................................................... 48 4.3 SHALLOW MARINE CARBONATE FACIES ASSOCIATION (FA-3) .................................... 52 4.3.1 Ooid Grainstone (Cg) ................................................................................................ 53 4.3.2 Fossiliferous Wackestone-Packstone (Cf) ................................................................ 56 4.3.3 Sandy Packstone-Grainstone (Cs) ............................................................................. 58 4.3.4 Marl (Cm) ................................................................................................................. 59 4.3.5 Depositional Environment of FA-3 .......................................................................... 59 4.4 SHALLOW MARINE SILICICLASTIC (FA-4) ..................................................................... 63 4.4.1 Hummocky/Swaley Cross-Stratified Quartz Arenite (Ss) ........................................ 65 4.4.2 Matrix-Supported Carbonate Clast Conglomerate (Sc) ............................................ 69 4.4.3 Depositional