Basin Analysis Studies of Lower Paleozoic Rocks, Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana

David L. Macke

The lower Paleozoic (Cambrian through Mississippian) sedimentary rocks of the Powder River basin represent nearly half of Phanerozoic time, yet they remain virtually unexplored in the subsurface.

Rocks of the same age in the Big Horn and Williston basins and in the Central Montana trough have produced much oil and gas, as have the overlying Pennsylvanian strata of the Powder River basin. A synthesis of published stratigraphic information, together with a regional analysis of sedimentary sequences, has been undertaken to evaluate the economic potential of the lower Paleozoic formations.

The lack of an economic impetus to study these rocks has hampered the development of precise depositional models for these sequences. Furthermore, the depths of prospective beds, as well as long-standing misconceptions about the regional stratigraphy, have also served to restrain exploration.

Stratigraphic studies have documented a succession of marine transgressions and regressions on the flanks of a highland in southeastern Wyoming. The highland persisted as a subdued geographic feature through most of early Paleozoic time, until it rose at the end of the Mississippian. Erosion during the Late Silurian and Devonian removed much of the depositional record in the area, but onlap can be demonstrated with relative certainty for Ordovician and Mississippian rocks.

The repetition of sedimentologic features indicates persistent geologic controls in the region and suggests that these paleoenvironments might provide good targets for exploration.

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