HANSEN, MICHAEL W., Enserch Exploration, Inc., Dallas, TX

ABSTRACT: Nevada's Little Smoky Valley: A High-Potential Valley in the Paleozoic Fairway

Little Smoky Valley, located in east-central Nevada between Railroad valleys, has been demonstrated to have all of the elements essential for oil production: generating source rock, fracture-porous reservoir rock, tight top and lateral seals as the trapping mechanism, and closed structure. The valley lies in the heart of a mature Chainman (Mississippian) oil-generating fairway, which is coincident with the western part of the Antler foreland basin, and runs from Pine Valley in the north to Railroad Valley in the south.

A southeastern Little Smoky Valley prospect, at the point where Eureka, White Pine, and Nye counties converge, was defined by using a combination of geological, geochemical, and geophysical methods, as well as remote sensing. There was 880 ft of shows in the first of two Stagecoach wells, which is now interpreted to be just below the oil-water contact within the freshwater drive zone of the carrier beds.

Minor Sevier hinterland overthrusting was demonstrated to have occurred in this mostly extensional province. The immediate subthrust in the first Stagecoach well contains palynomorphs dated as earliest Tertiary, and a syntectonic conglomerate exists at the very lip of the thrust just 1500 ft to the east. Thus, neither Antier (Roberts Mountains) thrusting nor post-Sevier low-angle normal detachment faulting is indicated. Although Sevier thrusting does exist, the west-east offset is minor.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90993©1993 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, September 12-15, 1993.