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Po-Ching Tai1,
Steven L. Dorobek2
(1) Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
(2) Texas A&M University
Abstract: Controlling factors on the development of Wolfcampian-Leonardian carbonate platforms around the Midland Basin, Permian Basin, West Texas
In the Midland Basin, West Texas, several types of carbonate platforms developed around the periphery of the basin during Wolfcampian-Leonardian time. At the largest scale, the general patterns of Wolfcampian-Leonardian platform evolution reflect a common second-order accommodation trend for the entire Midland Basin. In detail, however, variable morphologies and third-order stratigraphic evolution for different platform areas around the Midland Basin point to variable structural relief and sediment supply as the primary factors that controlled the evolution of each platform margin.
In the southwestern Midland Basin, platforms are characterized by backstepping middle-late Pennsylvanian ramps, progradational early-middle Wolfcampian rimmed shelves, backstepping late Wolfcampian rimmed shelves, and aggradational Leonardian rimmed shelves. Similar styles of platform evolution can be found in the northwestern Midland Basin except that progradation is a more common feature than aggradation for the middle-late Leonardian rimmed shelves. Along the Northern and Eastern shelves, Wolfcampian platforms are progradational ramps, while Leonardian platforms are highly progradational rimmed shelves.
High structural relief that formed during post-Strawn to early Wolfcampian deformation along the eastern margin of the Central Basin Platform, coupled with a smaller inner-platform surface area across the top of the Central Basin Platform may explain the dominantly aggradational character of Leonardian platform margins in the southwestern Midland Basin. In contrast, greater inner-platform surface area, greater platform-to-basin sediment flux, and gentler depositional gradients forced the highly progradational style of middle-late Leonardian platforms in the northwestern Midland Basin and Wolfcampian-Leonardian platforms along the Northern and Eastern shelves.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90914©2000 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana