Subsurface and Outcrop Examination of the Capitan Shelf Margin, Northern Delaware Basin

Shelf sandstone reservoirs are becoming a more and more common exploration target. What they are, how they may be characterized, and how they differ from shoreline and deep-water deposits in the subject of this publication. Shelf sands and sandstone reservoirs are among the more poorly understood types of sandstones. Continental, shoreline and deep water sandstones have all been studied in much more depth than have shelf sands and sandstones. However, during the last fifteen years significant progress has been made in understanding shelf sands and sandstones. Studies of modern sediments have allowed us to understand many of the depositional processes active on the shelf. This book is intended to be an up-to-date summary of shelf processes and products. The papers are intended for those new to shelf sands and sandstones as well as the shelf specialist.
Peritidal Facies of the Guadalupian Shelf Crest, Walnut Canyon, New Mexico Available to Purchase
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Published:January 01, 1989
Abstract
The facies succession of shelf carbonates in the upper Yates and lower Tansill formations shows a complex progression of environmental conditions across the shelf through time. An interval approximately 50 m thick centered about the easily recognizable contact between the Yates and Tansill formations was studied in an outcrop belt 3.5 km wide and 11 km long parallel to, and 1 to 8.5 km shelfward of, the Capitan Limestone (Walnut Canyon, New Mexico). The stratigraphic interval includes three major outcrop-defined carbonate units; in ascending order, the Hairpin Dolomite (Yates Formation), Triplet Dolomite (Yates Formation), and Basal Tansill Dolomite (Fig. 1), which have been subdivided into eight fabric-specific facies (Neese and Schwartz, 1977).
The geological literature of the Guadalupian shelf is extensive; King (1948), Newell et al. (1953), and Hayes (1964) concentrated primarily on broad stratigraphic relationships, lithologic features, and biota of shelf sediments and their reef and basinal equivalents. More genetic sedimentologic considerations of the Guadalupian shelf strata and their environments have been presented by Dunham (1972), Smith (1974), Pray and Esteban (1977), Neese (1979), Sarg and Lehmann (1986), and Tye (1986). The focus of this study is on the facies relationships of the grainstone and packstone facies of Dunham (1972) and Smith (1974).