Evolution and Destruction of a Carbonate Bank at the Shelf Margin: Grayburg Formation (Permian), Western Escarpment, Guadalupe Mountains, Texas

Franseen, Evan K.; Fekete, Thomas E.; Pray, Lloyd C.

doi:10.2110/pec.89.44.0289

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…, 1989), the Triassic Great Bank of Guizhou of south China (Lehrmann et al. , 1998) and the Permian Grayburg Formation of west Texas (Franseen et al. , 1989).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the review by McIlreath & James (1978) carbonate margins were grouped into escarpment (bypass) and accretionary (depositional) classes and, at geological time scales, the distinctions between the two are clearly evident (recently amplified by Playton et al, 2010). For example, erosion, escarpments and bypass are evident in many geological examples, such as the Cretaceous Blake Escarpment of the Bahamas (kilometre-scale erosion; Mullins, 1983;Freeman-Lynde & Ryan, 1985), the Cretaceous Maiella platform in Italy (1000 m high escarpment; Eberli et al, 1993), the Cretaceous margin of the West Florida Shelf (Corso et al, 1989), the Triassic Great Bank of Guizhou of south China (Lehrmann et al, 1998) and the Permian Grayburg Formation of west Texas (Franseen et al, 1989). In marked contrast, other margins are accretionary, characterized by accumulation and progradation.…”

Section: Comparison With Ancient Platform-marginal Uppermost Slopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geomorphology of carbonate platform‐marginal uppermost slopes: Insights from a Holocene analogue, Little Bahama Bank, Bahamas

Rankey

Doolittle

2012

Sedimentology

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As the product of a variety of sediment sources and sedimentation (and re‐sedimentation) and erosion processes, the geomorphology and sedimentology of carbonate slopes are highly variable. The purpose of this study is to describe sub‐bottom profiles and side‐scan sonar, multibeam and optical data acquired by an autonomous underwater vehicle to explore variability in geomorphological and sedimentological character of the present‐day platform‐marginal, uppermost slope environments (< 240 m water depth) on the north, open‐ocean facing flank of Little Bahama Bank, Bahamas. Although at time scales of greater than 100 ka this margin is progradational, the data illustrate a complex juxtaposition of erosional and depositional processes and features. Erosion is evidenced by two prominent escarpments (70 m and 120 m) that expose eroded, bedded rocky outcrops. These escarpments are interpreted to represent relict features, related to past sea‐level positions, although they still may be shedding debris. Aside from erosional remnants, sedimentation and active transport is indicated by several features, including active bedforms (especially above the 70 m escarpment, but ripples occur to depths of ca 200 m), several mass transport complexes that overlie and cover the lower escarpment, gravity flow deposits and rare slump features. Similarly, a thick (up to 20 m) onlapping sediment wedge, interpreted to be Holocene in age, suggests lateral accretion of the slope by more than 75 m in this period. Data illustrate that this open‐ocean margin is distinct from windward margins in the Bahamas, which typically include near‐vertical walls of erosion or bypass, flanked downdip by rubble and talus, and leeward margins, which have onlapping muddy wedges, but that lack marked terraces or escarpments. Collectively, the results provide perspectives into the nature and controls on complex geomorphological patterns of erosion and deposition in Holocene uppermost slope systems, concepts potentially applicable to ancient analogues.

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“…, 1989), the Triassic Great Bank of Guizhou of south China (Lehrmann et al. , 1998) and the Permian Grayburg Formation of west Texas (Franseen et al. , 1989).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparison With Ancient Platform-marginal Uppermost Slopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geomorphology of carbonate platform‐marginal uppermost slopes: Insights from a Holocene analogue, Little Bahama Bank, Bahamas

Rankey

Doolittle

2012

Sedimentology

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“…On the Western Escarpment, 10 km basinward of the study area ( Fig. 3), the Grayburg Formation attains a thickness of more than 365 meters (Fekete et al 1986;Franseen et al 1989). On the Western Escarpment, the lowermost 85 meters of the Grayburg is composed of progradational clinoforms overlain by more than 275 meters of flat-lying strata that record a shift from progradational to aggradational deposition (Fekete et al 1986;Franseen et al 1989).…”

Section: Previous Work and Sequence Stratigraphic Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outcrop Analog for Mixed Siliciclastic-Carbonate Ramp Reservoirs--Stratigraphic Hierarchy, Facies Architecture, and Geologic Heterogeneity: Grayburg Formation, Permian Basin, U.S.A.

Barnaby

Ward²

2007

Journal of Sedimentary Research

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The Grayburg Formation (Late Permian, Guadalupian) is a shallow-marine succession flanking the Delaware and Midland basins of Texas and New Mexico, U.S.A. The Grayburg exemplifies the facies heterogeneity imparted by cyclic interbedding of siliciclastic and carbonate rocks from lithologically diverse, inner-ramp to outer-ramp facies assemblages. High-resolution correlation and mapping of laterally continuous Grayburg strata exposed in the Brokeoff Mountains, New Mexico, allow the stratigraphic architecture, facies distribution, and lateral variability to be characterized in detail. This study provides an outcrop analog for stratigraphically equivalent subsurface reservoirs and comparable carbonate-ramp reservoirs that accumulated during periods of low-amplitude sea-level fluctuations. Vertical and lateral facies successions in the Grayburg record four hierarchical scales of cyclicity. The entire Grayburg is a composite sequence that initiated with transgression of the San Andres platform and culminated with subaerial exposure, followed by a major basinward shift in deposition. This third-order cycle contains four high-frequency sequences defined by transgressive outer-ramp facies overlain by aggradational ramp-crest to inner-ramp facies capped by an unconformity. Each high-frequency sequence contains several composite cycles, intermediate-scale cyclic successions. The high-frequency (fifthorder) cycles constitute the smallest-scale upward-shoaling facies successions that can be recognized and mapped, comprising the basic correlation entity to delineate lithofacies bodies. Lateral heterogeneity in the Grayburg reflects both systematic facies transitions and interwell-scale (meters to hundreds of meters) variability due to geologic complexity. Larger-scale systematic facies changes that reflect primary environmental and/ or depositional controls (e.g., water depth, platform position, accommodation trends) can be characterized using well and/or seismic data abetted by appropriate depositional models. Interwell heterogeneity due to geologic complexity, however, is difficult to recognize from subsurface datasets. Appropriate outcrop analogs provide information on lateral facies dimensions and heterogeneity architecture that is essential for constructing more realistic three-dimensional reservoir models, rather than oversimplified models based on lithofacies correlations forced between wells by linear interpolation. An understanding of geologic heterogeneity exhibited in outcrop analogs is crucial for geoscientists involved with characterizing and modeling subsurface heterogeneity.

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“…The recognition of ancient examples of similar collapse features along ramp-type platform slopes is difficult because of the extent of exposure needed to establish the geometry of the unconformable surfaces and their correlation with along strike conformable successions. Ancient examples have, however, been described from the Gulf of Mexico (Mullins & Neumann 1979;Paull & Dillon 1980;Doyle & Holmes 1985;Mullins et al 1986Mullins et al , 1987bMullins et al , 1988Eberli & Ginsburg 1987;Hine et al 1992), Guadalupe Montains, Texas (Franseen et al 1989;Stewart et al 1993), southern Italy (Bosellini et al 1993) and in Malta and Sicily (Pedley et al 1992). Stratal packages parallel to the bounding unconformable surfaces and composed of largely reworked inner ramp material are interpreted as the initial sediment fill across the basal erosive surface of the collapsed scar and comparable with similar sedimentary successions across erosive surfaces of low-angle slope described by Hine et al (1992).…”

Section: Depositionai Sequences: Description and Sedimentological Intmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facies architecture and geometry of a prograding carbonate ramp during the early stages of foreland basin evolution: Lower Eocene sequences, Sierra del Cadí, SE Pyrenees, Spain

Gilham¹,

Bristow²

1998

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This paper describes the Early Eocene sedimentological evolution of the Sierra del Cad/carbonate platform during the early development of the southeastern Pyrenean foreland basin, Spain. The platform developed as a south-facing ramp system located either across the southern margin of a growth anticline within the newly formed basin or along the axial margin of the basin. Sequences I and II both comprise basal transgressive systems tracts (TSTs) dominated by a thick succession of outer ramp lime mudstones, shallowing upwards into a highstand systems tract (HST) of mid-and inner ramp bioclastic shoals, sand banks and lagoonal deposits. In Sequence III the TST comprises a thick,

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Evolution and Destruction of a Carbonate Bank at the Shelf Margin: Grayburg Formation (Permian), Western Escarpment, Guadalupe Mountains, Texas

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Geomorphology of carbonate platform‐marginal uppermost slopes: Insights from a Holocene analogue, Little Bahama Bank, Bahamas

Geomorphology of carbonate platform‐marginal uppermost slopes: Insights from a Holocene analogue, Little Bahama Bank, Bahamas

Outcrop Analog for Mixed Siliciclastic-Carbonate Ramp Reservoirs--Stratigraphic Hierarchy, Facies Architecture, and Geologic Heterogeneity: Grayburg Formation, Permian Basin, U.S.A.

Facies architecture and geometry of a prograding carbonate ramp during the early stages of foreland basin evolution: Lower Eocene sequences, Sierra del Cadí, SE Pyrenees, Spain

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