--> ABSTRACT: Exceptional Marine Sand Bodies in the Paleozoic of Oklahoma, by Richard D. Fritz, M.D. Kuykendall, Ellen O. Hooker, John W. Shelton; #91003 (1990).

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ABSTRACT: Exceptional Marine Sand Bodies in the Paleozoic of Oklahoma

Richard D. Fritz, M.D. Kuykendall, Ellen O. Hooker, John W. Shelton

Of the wide variety of sandstone reservoirs in Oklahoma, the most unusual types of sand bodies are present in the Atokan Spiro Sandstone, Devonian Misener Sandstone, and Morrowan lower Morrow Sandstone. The common factors are that upon correlation and mapping these units are channel-like (fluvial-deltaic) in geometry, but from petrographic evidence are quartz-rich shallow-marine units, with the exclusion of intraclastic and diagenetic constituents.

Stratigraphic mapping of the Spiro Sandstone of the Arkoma basin indicates two types of sand bodies: channel and sheet. The marine channel-like deposits, 10-150 ft thick, probably were deposited on a paleosurface produced by a pre-Atokan unconformity. Examination of cores and outcrop indicate that both the channel and sheet Spiro sands contain shallow-marine fossils, limestones, peloidal chamosite, burrows, and bioturbation, all indicative of a shallow-marine setting.

The Misener Sandstone of north-central Oklahoma ranges from 10 to 100 ft thick with sharp boundaries. It was deposited in pre-Frisco/Woodford eroded paleochannels. Core evidence for shallow-marine deposition is glauconite, phosphatic fossils and clasts, burrows, and bioturbation. These were probably deposited in an embayed, estuary-like environment.

The lower Morrow Sandstone of the Anadarko basin is similar in geometry, except that the sand bodies are multistoried and multilateral and do not appear to be associated with a regional unconformity. The lower Morrow sandstones, usually 30-60 ft thick, commonly are elongated and deposited parallel to the shoreline. Deposition is inferred to be shallow-marine from marine fossils and glauconite.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91003©1990 AAPG Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, June 3-6, 1990