Mid-Continent Section

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Subsurface Analysis Of Tripolitic Chert In Northwest Arkansas

Abstract

Over the past 70 years, the Mississippian strata of NW Arkansas have been studied in great detail by the faculty and students of the University of Arkansas. The current project is subsurface analysis of the distribution of tripolitic chert through well log analysis concentrated in the southern half of a 4,000 square mile mapping area. The University of Arkansas is located on the escarpment between the Boston Mountains and the Salem Plateau where a surface occurrence of Mississippian age rock allows for access to outcrops in close proximity to subsurface Mississippian in gas wells across NW Arkansas. These Newly acquired well logs have been marked in Google Earth and integrated into an outcrop Google Earth Database. My work relates outcrops to shallow wells and their corresponding wireline data characterizing the Mississippian system and specifically focusing on occurance of tripolitic chert. Further research will employ quantitative methods to facilitate the correlation of surface features with subsurface features. These methods will include well log correlation in association with shallow seismic, ground penetrating radar, and surface conductivity surveys.