LATE MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC KINEMATIC RECONSTRUCTION: ASSESSMENT OF LATE CRETACEOUS MAGMATISM AND SOURCE-TO- SINK CONFIGURATION IN THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Houston ________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science _________________________________________ By Jordan Nicole Dickinson August 2017 i LATE MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC KINEMATIC RECONSTRUCTION: ASSESSMENT OF LATE CRETACEOUS MAGMATISM AND SOURCE-TO- SINK CONFIGURATION IN THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO _______________________________________ Jordan Dickinson APPROVED: _______________________________________ Dr. Michael Murphy, Chairman _______________________________________ Dr. Joel Saylor _______________________________________ Dr. Ana Krueger _______________________________________ Dr. Pete Emmet _______________________________________ Dean, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Michael Murphy. Throughout my Master’s Program with UH, Dr. Murphy has instilled an incredible amount of wisdom and guidance into my education. I greatly appreciate his knowledge and energy spent in teaching and advising me throughout my Master’s Program. Dr. Ana Krueger was invaluable with her assistance and guidance with teaching me the necessary softwares and demonstrating the utmost patience, and I appreciate her time and efforts. I am very thankful for my thesis committee which consisted of Dr. Joel Saylor, Dr. Pete Emmet, and Dr. Ana Krueger as well as Dr. Murphy. Throughout my research I conferred with these faculty, previous students, and attended conferences to gain information from all the people who generously provided me with information which made the process rewarding. Last but not least, I am also thankful to my parents and to Wills for their unconditional love and support. iii LATE MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC KINEMATIC RECONSTRUCTION: ASSESSMENT OF LATE CRETACEOUS MAGMATISM AND SOURCE-TO- SINK CONFIGURATION IN THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO An Abstract of a Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Houston ________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science _________________________________________ By Jordan Nicole Dickinson August 2017 iv ABSTRACT It has been demonstrated that emplacement of 92-108 Ma post-breakup alkalic magmatism and attendant structural culminations in Louisiana and Arkansas facilitated mid-Cretaceous surface uplift, development of unconformities in updip areas, and incision of fringinng reefs along the northern Gulf of Mexico thereby promoting the development of depositional fairways that permitted transport of Late Cretaceous course siliclastic sediments into the deep water gulf. To the west, the Balcones Igneous Province, exposed for 397 km from Austin to Carizo Springs, Texas, was emplaced between 83.5 and 72.4 Ma. Should this hypothesis for the mechanism driving incision and siliciclastic transport past the fringing carbonate reef due to the Sabine and Monroe uplifts prove to be valid, it is possible that surface uplift above the Balcones igneous province and Llano uplift could have produced the same effect. Additionally, it has long been acknowledged that sedimentation, such as that from an influx of Paleocene sediments, is a driving factor of deformational extension in the Gulf of Mexico, though there have been no previous attempts to quantify it. This is a process most easily acheived through structural restoration. For this thesis, I fully interpreted fautls, salt bodies, and 16 horizons on two GulfSPAN regional 2D seismic reflection profiles guided by well ties from 48 available wells, seismic attributes, and previous interpretations in proximal areas. I also conducted a full line-length kinematic reconstruction on GulfSPAN line 2450 from the Holocene to the Middle Jurassic using 2D Move restoration software, and calculated extension based on the results. GulfSPAN line 2450 was restored in 12 time steps back to the Middle Jurassic, revealing the paleobathymetric surface at each step and providing insight into paleodepositional settings. Measurements of extension from the Pliocene to the Middle Jurassic revealed rates of extension that show generally low rates in the Cretaceous and Paleocene that increase and peak in the Oligocene with modest rates through the Middle Miocene before tapering off. Finally, 2D seismic interpretation delineated 5 sets of slope canyons fed from Paleocene age delta systems. I interpret this system to have been driven by surface uplift on land 10 to 30 Mya later in the Balcones Igneous province than in the Sabine and Monroe uplifts to the east. v CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 1.1 Motivation and Objectives ....................................................................................... 1 1.2 Study Area ................................................................................................................ 5 1.3 Significance .............................................................................................................. 6 CHAPTER 2: REGIONAL GEOLOGY ........................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 3: DATA & METHODOLOGY ................................................................... 12 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 12 3.2 2D Seismic Interpretation....................................................................................... 12 3.3 Gravity and Magnetic Data .................................................................................... 16 3.4 Kinematic Restoration ............................................................................................ 17 CHAPTER 4: INTERPRETATIONS .............................................................................. 21 4.1 Strikeline 5000 ....................................................................................................... 21 4.2 Dip Line 2450......................................................................................................... 25 4.3 Gravity and Magnetic Data .................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 5: STRUCTURAL RESTORATION ........................................................... 34 5.1 Stage M (Middle Jurassic) ..................................................................................... 36 5.2 Stage L (Early Cretaceous) .................................................................................... 36 5.3 Stage K (Late Cretaceous)...................................................................................... 37 5.4 Stage J (Early Paleocene) ....................................................................................... 37 5.5 Stage I (Late Paleocene) ......................................................................................... 38 5.6 Stage H (Eocene) .................................................................................................... 40 5.7 Stage G (Oligocene) ............................................................................................... 41 5.8 Stage F (Early Miocene) ........................................................................................ 41 5.9 Stage E (Middle Miocene) ..................................................................................... 43 5.10 Stage D (Late Miocene) ....................................................................................... 43 5.11 Stage C (Pliocene) ................................................................................................ 44 5.12 Stage B (Pleistocene) ........................................................................................... 44 vi 5.13 Stage A (Present) .................................................................................................. 44 CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS .................................................... 45 6.1 Paleocene Incision in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico ....................................... 45 6.2 Extension in the Gulf of Mexico ............................................................................ 47 6.3 Potential Mechanisms for Late Cretaceous Uplift ................................................. 50 6.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 50 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 54 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………58 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation and Objectives Examples of gravity induced deformation along a salt detachment producing significant extensional and shortening regimes have been observed in several passive margin settings (Withjack et al., 1995; Hudec and Jackson, 2002). The northern Gulf of Mexico is one of the best places to study this phenomenon because of the varying nature of extensional deformation across the basin. The most basic type of structural style found in the Gulf of Mexico is a linked system of updip extension, downdip shortening, and an intermediate transitional zone (Figure 1). Along strike, magnitudes