Biothem-Based Mississippian Transect from the Basin and Range Province to the Anadarko Basin

FRYE, M. W., Resource Consulting Group, Morrison, CO, H. R. LANE, Amoco Production Co., Houston, TX, and G. D. COUPLES, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland

A west-to-east transect, constructed using the "Biostratigraphic Package Approach" of Lane and Frye and illustrating the biostratigraphic, lithologic, and depositional sequence relationships within the Mississippian system, extends from the basin and range province across the Transcontinental Arch (TA) and into the Anadarko basin. The transect is based on both published and proprietary biostratigraphic data. It was constructed primarily to portray the regional distribution and exploration significance of biothems relative to the axis of the TA. These biothems are biostratigraphic units that are wedge- or lens-shaped bodies of strata that are bounded by paleontologically recognizable unconformities in their updip extents, are conformable with underlying and overlying biothems in their aximum shelfal development, are conformable or bounded by surfaces of nondeposition and/or submarine erosion in their downdip, basinal extremities, and also contain a logical sequence of depositionally related facies.

An unexpected result of constructing the transect was the recognition of an apparent compensatory temporal and spatial distribution of Mississippian biothems. This distribution is interpreted to imply that biothems deposited during relative highstand events on one flank of the TA are time-equivalent to biothems deposited during relative lowstand events on the opposite flank of the TA. Plate-scale tilting, along with local subsidence and uplift, is suggested as the overriding mechanism controlling deposition along the extent of the transect. A further conclusion is that the lack of transgressive or regressive coincident Mississippian biothems on either flank of the TA questions the advisability of imposing the Mississippi Valley-derived eustasy curve on western flank depositional seque ces.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91004 © 1991 AAPG Annual Convention Dallas, Texas, April 7-10, 1991 (2009)