ABSTRACT: Tectonic and Depositional Model of the North Louisiana-South Arkansas Basin

LOWRIE, A., Consultant, Picayune, MS, N. M. SULLIVAN, Bluebonnet Petroleum, Harvey, LA, C. KROTZER, Consultant, Metairie, LA, and I. LERCHE, and K. PETERSEN, Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

A tectonic and depositional model is presented for the North Louisiana-South Arkansas (NL-SA) basin. This area is defined as extending from the up-dip sedimentary outcrop limit of the Mississippi embayment, to the Sabine uplift and its possible eastward extension to the Wiggens arch in the south, and lying between the Sabine and Monroe uplifts. Included in this designation is the North Louisiana Salt basin.

Geohistory modeling of basin subsidence with time has been correlated to sediment deposition, as well as to regional climatic and oceanographic information. In each instance, quantification and/or ranges of the natural processes are provided. The objective is to develop a dynamic model framework that is accurate enough to underpin individual prospects with regional understanding.

The tectonic chronology begins with (1) subduction in the lower Paleozoic, followed by (2) incipient and interrupted rifting that is possibly part of mantle plume rising in the upper Paleozoic. A second episode of magmatic intrusion associated with North Atlantic rifting occurred in Middle Jurassic, with Upper Jurassic sea-floor spreading south of the Sabine uplift. Regional subsidence occurred from the edge of the Mississippi embayment through the North Louisiana Salt basin, including the proto-Sabine uplift. Lower Cretaceous cessation of the central Gulf of Mexico spreading was accompanied by initiation of tectonic subsidence and the beginning of the South Louisiana Salt basin. There was continued regional downwarp from the edge of the Mississippi embayment through the proto-Sabine plift region. Middle Cretaceous initiation of the Sabine and Monroe uplifts, with a reduction of subsidence rate in the NL-SA area, also impacted the evolution of sedimentary fill and associated structural evolution.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91014©1992 AAPG GCAGS and GC-SEPM Meeting, Jackson, Mississippi, October 21-23, 1992 (2009)