Application of Structural Methods to Rocky Mountain Hydrocarbon Exploration and Development
With increasing industry emphasis on developing “unconventional” tight gas reservoirs and on enhancing recovery from existing fields, geologists are facing diverse challenges in the applications of structural geology. Identifying fracture characteristics within petroleum systems is essential. Understanding the timing of tectonics and the formation of structures is important, as these factors strongly influence hydrocarbon generation, migration, entrapment, and preservation. The purpose in publishing this collection of key papers is to aid future workers in addressing complex interrelationships between structural geology and hydrocarbon exploration and development. The first four chapters of this book focus on structural concepts and techniques. The second part of this book is a collection of Rocky Mountain fault and fracture studies. These well documented studies are valuable reference materials for all petroleum geologists.
The Beaver Creek Detachment System: Syn-Laramide Gravity Detachment and Folding Oblique to Regional Compression
-
Published:January 01, 2013
-
CiteCitation
Sara Smaltz, Eric Erslev, 2013. "The Beaver Creek Detachment System: Syn-Laramide Gravity Detachment and Folding Oblique to Regional Compression", Application of Structural Methods to Rocky Mountain Hydrocarbon Exploration and Development, Constance N. Knight, Jerome J. Cuzella, Leland D. Cress
Download citation file:
- Share
Abstract
Detachment folds basinward of Laramide Rocky Mountain arches are relatively poorly known, partially due to coverage by synorogenic strata that may conceal undiscovered anticlinal fields. This study documents the geometry and kinematics of the Beaver Creek Detachment system (BCD), which is located west of a series of NW-trending thrust faults and folds defining the Beaver Creek reentrant on the western edge of the Bighorn Arch. Possible origins for this proposed detachment include syn-Laramide detachment rooted in mountain-front faulting, syn-Laramide gravity slinding during mountain-front folding, and post-Laramide gravity sliding.
- basement
- Big Horn County Wyoming
- Bighorn Basin
- Bighorn Mountains
- Carboniferous
- clastic rocks
- compression
- Cretaceous
- decollement
- enhanced recovery
- faults
- folds
- gravity sliding
- Jurassic
- Laramide Orogeny
- lineation
- Mesozoic
- monoclines
- North America
- oblique-slip faults
- oil and gas fields
- overburden
- Paleozoic
- Pennsylvanian
- permeability
- physical models
- Pinedale Anticline
- production
- reservoir rocks
- Rocky Mountains
- sandstone
- sedimentary rocks
- shear
- slickensides
- strike-slip faults
- structural analysis
- structural controls
- structural traps
- style
- Sublette County Wyoming
- Sundance Formation
- tectonics
- Tensleep Sandstone
- thrust faults
- traps
- U. S. Rocky Mountains
- United States
- Upper Jurassic
- Wyoming
- Gypsum Springs Formation
- Beaver Creek Anticline