--> ABSTRACT: Central Nevada Overthrust Belt: New and Exciting Frontier Play, by Alan K. Chamberlain; #91033 (2010)

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Central Nevada Overthrust Belt: New and Exciting Frontier Play

Alan K. Chamberlain

Large, untested, thrust-related features along a newly described thrust belt in central Nevada could contain significant quantities of hydrocarbons. All producing fields in Nevada are found in upper plate fault blocks along this Early Cretaceous thrust belt. Hydrocarbons in these fields probably migrated from large thrust-related features that are yet to be tested.

Exposures of thrust-belt indicators are found along this broad belt from the Keystone thrust of the Spring Mountains in southern Nevada to the Independence Mountains in northern Nevada. Thrust-related features in upper Paleozoic rocks are commonly associated with the Lower Cretaceous Newark Canyon Formation, which suggests an Early Cretaceous compressional event. In some areas, these features were draped by Oligocene volcanics and subsequently modified by Tertiary extension.

Recognition of thrust-belt indicators, relationships of Mississippian source rocks and Devonian reservoir rocks, and preextention paleotopography is one of the keys in developing a profitable exploration model along this thrust belt.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91033©1988 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section, Bismarck, North Dakota, 21-24 August 1988