KUBIK, PETER K., Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas
Exploration and development wells, for three deepwater central Gulf of Mexico fields (Cooper, Llano, and Habanero), provide time-equivalent stratigraphy from proximal to distal depositional settings. Each field is located in the central Gulf of Mexico salt-minibasins intraslope province. Oil and gas pays for each of the fields are Pliocene and Pleistocene turbidite deposits. Using condensed section micro-faunal assemblages from three wells, six glacio-eustatic cycles have been identified to occur during the Pliocene (Discoaster brouweri through Reticulofenestra pseudoumbilica intervals 3.64 Ma – 1.95 Ma). Interpretation of a high-quality 3D geophysical survey (encompassing 8 lease blocks or 75 square miles) allows a study of ancient turbidite processes and salt diapirism within a salt mini-basin province. Geological subsurface field mapping will show how accommodation and sedimentation was dependent upon salt-sediment interaction through time. Salt diapir evolution will be chronostratigraphically documented by interpreting sequence stratigraphic stacking patterns and the sediment facies depositional architecture. Preliminary geological mapping indicates a vertical sequence stratigraphic succession of turbidite lithofacies from basal sheet sands (ponded assemblage) to overlying channel sands (bypass assemblage).