Geology and hydrocarbon assessment of the Blue Ridge, Province No. 132

Petroleum exploration plays and resource estimates, 1989, onshore United States; Region 8, Eastern Interior; Region 9, Atlantic Coast

“…Two major intracratonic basins, the Michigan (127) and Illinois (128) basins, are separated from the Appalachian basin to the east by the Cincinnati Arch (129) and Nashville Dome. The east side of the foreland Appalachian basin (131) is bounded by the highly deformed rocks of the Blue Ridge Thrust Belt Province (132).…”

“…. These undiscovered petroleum resources of these provinces are assessed in a single collective play, the Mesozoic Rift Basins play (020), that is common to all three of these provinces and in some cases extends beyond these province boundaries into the Blue Ridge Thrust Belt province (132) and the Florida Peninsula province (136). Fluvial and lacustrine rocks in the various rift basins belong to the Newark Supergroup, which ranges from Middle Triassic to Lower Jurassic in age and from 1,000 to about 20,000 ft in thickness ( fig.…”

“…The Appalachian Basin province is a broad, elongate synclinorium 75-350 mi wide and more than 1,000 mi long extending from Lake Ontario in New York generally south-westward to Alabama. The western margin of the province is the east flank of the Cincinnati arch; the basin extends eastward from this point to and under the Blue Ridge Thrust Belt (132) and Piedmont (133) provinces. Resources in these two provinces were assessed separately, however.…”

“…The New England-Adirondack province (134) includes sedimentary, metasedimentary, and plutonic igneous rocks, mainly of Cambrian-Ordovician age, similar to rocks in the Blue Ridge (132) and Piedmont (133) provinces to the south. The uplifted, nearly circular Adirondack Mountains consist mainly of Precambrian rocks surrounded by upturned Cambrian and Ordovician sedimentary rocks.…”