Robert D. Hatcher¹, Jennifer B. Whisner¹, Peter J. Lemiszki²
(1) University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
(2) Tennessee Division of Geology

Abstract: Quantitative facies and bank-edge restoration and evolution of carbonate reservoirs in the Appalachian Foreland Fold-Thrust Belt

The basement surface and associated erosional and rifted-margin tectonic topography beneath the Appalachian Valley and Ridge and Plateau has recently been resolved by employing industry, survey, and academic seismic reflection data. This reconstruction permits for the first time quantitative 3-D restoration of the Alleghanian (Permian) thrusts and major facies boundaries for the Cambrian, Ordovician, and younger carbonate and clastic units on the pre-Alleghanian margin. These reconstructions reveal direct relationships between facies boundaries (e.g., early Paleozoic carbonate bank edge) and several large faults that have been discovered breaking the basement surface beneath the restored thrust belt in Georgia and the Carolinas.

New and old discoveries in the Knox Group in Tennessee and Virginia indicate possible relationships between Knox-sourced reservoirs and pre-Alleghanian basement structure, as well as to syn- and postdepositional thermal maturation processes. This interactive petroleum system should yield a number of new fields as this region is explored over the next decade.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90914©2000 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana