Abstract: Depositional Patterns and Structural Styles--Hackberry Salt Dome, Cameron Parish, Louisiana

Jeffrey A. Spencer, Charles L. Sharpe, Travis H. Gillham, David N. Wright

The west and east Hackberry fields of north-central Cameron Parish, Louisiana, are associated with a large southeast-plunging salt ridge. Episodes of salt movement influenced the depositional patterns and reservoir trap styles of the Oligocene and Miocene age section.

The Oligocene lower Hackberry channels were influenced by the salt, resulting in the "Manchester-Holmwood" channel system skirting the east and south flanks of the salt and the "Choupique" channel system skirting the west flank of the salt. The depositional patterns and structural bed dips of the younger Oligocene Camerina (A) to Marginulina section demonstrate a major period of salt movement and erosion. The resulting truncation of the Camerina (A) sands, sealed by overlying shales, provides the dominant trap style for the majority of the fields' reservoirs. This same general period of salt movement influenced the orientation of the Oligocene Camerina (A)--Miogypsinoides expansion fault systems of the prolific Miogypsinoides embayment. The Sweet Lake salt dome, downthrown to this exp nsion system, probably represents a southeast extension of this ancestral salt ridge.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90983©1994 GCAGS and Gulf Coast SEPM 44th Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas, October 6-7, 1994