19 Big Geoscientific Problems in the South-Central Region

Tuesday, 22 March 2016
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Governor Room

THE MUENSTER UPLIFT OF NORTH TEXAS

Paper number: 19-4
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 2:30 PM – 2:50 PM

Authors

  • Mark George Presenting Author
    University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX

Abstract

The Fort Worth Basin (FWB) in North Texas is a major Paleozoic sedimentary basin which has been the focus of extensive oil and gas exploration in recent years. This sedimentary basin is flanked to the northeast by a prominent structural feature characterized by a set of NW-SE trending reverse faults which extend from the Wichita Uplift in southwestern Oklahoma to the buried Ouachita folded thrust belt in northeast Texas. The structure which is strongly asymmetric, represents greater than 5000’ of offset to the downthrown southwest side of the FWB. It is a basement-cored uplift, similar in style to Laramide structures of Colorado and Wyoming. During Cambrian time, southern Oklahoma experienced rifting associated with formation of the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen. Subsidence occurred in Late Cambrian to Early Devonian and continued into the Mississippian depositing thick accumulations of marine limestones, sandstones and shales in the adjacent FWB. Later Pennsylvanian compression caused folding and high-angle reverse and transpressional faulting in the vicinity of the Wichita and Arbuckle uplifts, along with development of low-angle thrusts and nappes farther east in the Ouachitas. Subsidence of the Muenster high occurred in Late Pennsylvanian time as the region received sediments shed from uplifts to the NW, NE, and perhaps S. The uplift is commonly but erroneously referred to as the “Muenster Arch” but it has none of the gentle or symmetrical structural definition of an arch. For this reason, I refer to it as the Muenster Uplift or Muenster structure. Few studies have examined the geologic history of the Muenster structure. A structural interpretation of the faults was carried out using seismic, well, gravity and magnetics to better understand the significance of the Muenster Uplift for the Late Paleozoic tectonic evolution of north-central Texas.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 1

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016SC-274009

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.