Near surface seismic investigations of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian outcrops

Abstract

The University of Arkansas MArkUP research group has indexed a collection of 185 geologic outcrops of Pennsylvanian and Mississippian age. Our purpose is to apply shallow seismic methods to extend outcrop knowledge. The Pennsylvanian outcrops selected for investigation are the Bloyd and Hale formations as well as the Mississippian Pitkin, Fayetteville, Hindsville/Batesville, Boone, St. Joe, and the Devonian Chattanooga. These formations are predominantly sandstone, limestone, chert and shale. Key outcrop locations were chosen where near surface seismic could extend geologic knowledge of the area and the formations. Tests were conducted using a hammer source and Geonics Geode 48 channel seismograph with single-component geophones. The main interest in this study was to analyze refraction events associated with known Mississippian and Pennsylvanian units to estimate P-wave velocity and depth. Velocity also has possible application for discriminating buried LS/chert facies in the Boone Formation that are known from outcrops and likely occur at petroleum exploration depths in NE Oklahoma.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90221 © 2015 Mid-Continent Section, Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 4-6, 2015