Transgressive-Regressive Sequences in the Canyon Formation (Missourian), Salt Creek Field, Kent County, Texas: Correlation to Worldwide Depositional Events

JENSEN, J. M., and D. A. WALKER, Mobil Exploration and Production U.S., Midland, TX

At least nine transgressive-regressive depositional units have been delineated for the Upper Pennsylvanian (Missourian) Canyon Formation within the Salt Creek reef of the Horseshoe atoll of west Texas. The nine lithostratigraphic units consist of shoaling-upward carbonate sequences bounded by unconformities. These units coincide with fusulinid biostratigraphic zonations established for the Permian basin. The lithostratigraphic-biostratigraphic units correlate to other transgressive-regressive sequences and faunal successions found on widely separated cratonic shelves from around the world. These correlative sequences are the result of eustatic sea level changes due to repeated glaciation during the Pennsylvanian. The Salt Creek reef is unique in that these sequences were deposited in siliciclastics starved basin as a free-standing carbonate buildup on a preexisting platform. This type of deposition is significant in that other contemporaneous sequences of mixed lithologies were deposited on broad, stable cratonic shelves.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91011©1991 AAPG Southwest Section Meeting, Abilene, Texas, February 9-12, 1991 (2009)