Jm. Combes, THE VICKSBURG FORMATION OF TEXAS - DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS DISTRIBUTION,SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY, AND PETROLEUM GEOLOGY, AAPG bulletin, 77(11), 1993, pp. 1942-1970
Citations number
55
Categorie Soggetti
Energy & Fuels",Geology,"Geosciences, Interdisciplinary
The lower Oligocene Vicksburg Formation of the Gulf Coastal plain cont
ains major petroleum reservoirs in the Rio Grande embayment and is an
economically viable target in other areas of Texas. Knowledge of the d
istribution of Vicksburg depositional systems is essential to understa
nding sandstone concentrations and, therefore, is fundamental to effec
tive exploration and production of the Vicksburg section. The depositi
onal setting of the Vicksburg reservoirs, their position in a sequence
stratigraphic framework, and the influence these factors have on the
petroleum geology of the Vicksburg are the focus of this paper. Surfac
e and subsurface geological and geophysical data provided the framewor
k for an analysis of the depositional systems and the petroleum geolog
y of the Vicksburg. The two primary Texas Vicksburg depocenters, the R
io Grande embayment and the Houston embayment, are separated by the Sa
n Marcos arch, a deep-rooted structural nose. Within the embayments, s
and-rich deltaic complexes merged along strike with barrier/strand pla
ins. Contemporaneous growth faulting controlled depositional patterns
of shelf-edge deltas in the Rio Grande embayment, but had only a minor
effect on the configuration of the shelfal deltas in the Houston emba
yment. Smaller wave-dominated shelf delta complexes interspersed with
barrier/strand plains extended across the San Marcos arch. Updip of th
ese sandy paralic depocenters, fluvial systems traversed mud-rich coas
tal plain units. Seaward of the paralic systems, sand and mud deposits
prograded across and built up over the relict Jackson shelf and shelf
-margin shales. These depositional complexes are contained in the syst
ems tracts of one eustatic (Exxon) sequence. Vicksburg production from
each of the three structural regions of Texas is characterized by res
ervoirs from different systems tracts and of distinct, different depos
itional origins.