Correlation and Deposystem Interpretation for Lower Mississippian Sequence in Subsurface of West Virginia

Ray M. Boswell, Gregory A. Jewell

Correlation and depositional environments of the Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian Price-Rockwell delta complex are well understood for units along the outcrop belt in eastern West Virginia. However, the correlation of these units with the sequence of subsurface driller's sandstones is poorly known. Furthermore, little is known concerning the relationships of the well-developed Lower Mississippian hydrocarbon-bearing strata of southern West Virginia with equivalent units to the north. Regional analysis of over 700 gamma-ray well logs, combined with study of outcrops at Rowlesburg and Caldwell, West Virginia, provides insight into the nature of the Cloyd conglomerate, and the Berea, Weir, Squaw, and Big Injun sandstones and allows the refinement of the stratigraphic succe sion of the Price Formation in southern West Virginia. New members listed herein are as of yet informal, pending publication of description of type sections from the Caldwell outcrop.

Latest Devonian deposition was marked by the progradation of thick coarse-grained fluvial and delta-front clastics of the Cloyd Conglomerate Member of the Price Formation (southern West Virginia) and uppermost Oswayo Formation (northern West Virginia). Subsequent transgression at the Devonian-Mississippian boundary produced deep-water environments of the Caldwell shale member of the Price Formation (southern West Virginia) and Riceville and basal Cuyahoga Formations (northern West Virginia) that gradually shoaled, recording basin infilling related to the progradation of the Price-Rockwell delta complex. Submarine fan and distal shelf deposits ("lower Weir") are represented by the Howards Creek member (southern West Virginia) and middle Cuyahoga Formation (northern West Virginia); over ying delta front and shoreline sandstones ("middle Weir," "upper Weir," and "Big Injun") are recognized as the Coffman Hill member of the Price Formation (southern West Virginia) and upper Cuyahoga Formation (northern West Virginia). This sequence is ultimately overlain by nonmarine deposits of the Maccrady Formation.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91031©1988 AAPG Eastern Section, Charleston, West Virginia, 13-16 September 1988.