The northern Gulf of Mexico offshore super basin: Reservoirs, source rocks, seals, traps, and successes

Middle Oxfordian carbon cycle perturbation expressed in the Smackover Formation, Gulf of Mexico

“…A Late Oxfordian age for the regressive upper Ek-Balam Fm. is supported by the occurrence of Oxfordian foraminifera (Globigerina oxfordiana) in the nearby Chac-1 well (Ornelas-Sánchez et al 1993: in Snedden et al 2020. The sandstones of the underlying Bacab Formation are devoid of marine fossils, so Cantú-Chapa ( 2009) inferred an Early Oxfordian age based on stratigraphic position below the ammonites recovered from the Ek-Balam shales.…”

“…The Ek-Balam field is a major oil and gas field in the offshore Campeche Bay, Mexico. The Middle to Late Jurassic interval is characterized by three units from oldest to youngest: (i) aeolian sandstones assigned to the Bacab Formation; ii) an evaporitic sabkha unit termed the Tson anhydrite (uppermost part of the Bacab Formation) and iii) calcareous marine mudstone and shale unit assigned to the Ek-Balam Fm (Cantú-Chapa, 2009;Snedden et al 2020). The Bacab and Tson anhydrite member are interpreted as regressive sequences capped by a sequence boundary, with a sharp contact between the Tson anhydrite member and the overlying Ek-Balam Fm (Cantú-Chapa, 2009).…”

Late Mesozoic sandstone volumes recorded in Gulf of Mexico subsurface depocentres: Deciphering long‐term sediment supply trends and contributions by paleo river systems

“…Tectonostratigraphy of the Gulf of Mexico (From Snedden, Cunningham, et al, 2020); AC, Austin Chalk; BMT, Basement; BP, Bexar‐Pine Island; CVB, Cotton Valley‐Bossier; CVK, Cotton Valley‐Knowles; EFT, Eagle Ford‐Tuscaloosa; EM, Eagle Mills; GR, Glen Rose; HVB, Haynesville‐Buckner; JS, Jackson; LM1, Lower Miocene 1; LM2, Lower Miocene 2; LS, Louann Salt; LW, Lower Wilcox; MM, Middle Miocene; MW, Middle Wilcox; NOR, Norphlet; NT, Navarro‐Taylor; OF, Frio‐Vicksburg; PAB, Pliocene Angulogerina B; PB1, Plio‐Miocene Buliminella 1; PGa, Pliocene Globoquadrina a.; PL1, Pliocene Lenticulina 1; PS, Pleistocene Sangamonian; PTA, Pleistocene Trimosina A; PW, Paluxy‐Washita; QC, Queen City; RD, Rodessa; SH, Sligo‐Hosston; SMK, Smackover; SP, Sparta; UM, Upper Miocene; UW, Upper Wilcox; YC, Yegua‐Cockfield…”

“…The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is a sedimentary basin that initiated with localised crustal rifting and extension after the Late Paleozoic joining of Laurentia and Gondwana (Filina et al, 2021;Salvador, 1987Salvador, , 1991Snedden, Cunningham, et al, 2020). In regions devoid of rifting, sedimentation filled a series of small successor basins or a pre-rift topographic low in the north central GoM including the pre-salt Eagle Mills section (Frederick et al, 2020).…”

“…The presence of a prominent unconformity at the base of the Sligo‐Hosston succession in the area of the Peninsular Arch and areas to the west points to tectonic reorganisation and possible uplift and erosion at the end of sea floor spreading (Ewing & Lopez, 1991; McFarlan & Menes, 1991; Rose, 2021; Snedden, Bovay, et al, 2016; Snedden & Galloway, 2019). This was followed a long phase of localised crustal heating, volcanism and regional tectonics terminating at the end of the Mesozoic with the Chicxulub impact event (Snedden, Cunningham, et al, 2020).…”