Paleocene Eocene Drawdown and Refill of the Gulf of Mexico Concept History and Status by Joshua Rosenfeld

Transcription

1 Paleocene Eocene Drawdown and Refill of the Gulf of Mexico Concept History and Status by Joshua Rosenfeld

2 The Concept: The Gulf was isolated from the world ocean as the Cuban Arc docked against the Florida/Bahamas Block at about the Paleocene-Eocene boundary Subsequent evaporation lowered the level of the Gulf within several thousand years by some 2,000 meters. Isolation lasted about 1 million years. The Gulf refilled rapidly upon reconnection with the world ocean.

3 History Print References Rosenfeld and Pindell: Offshore Magazine, January 2002 Rosenfeld and Pindell: AAPG Memoir 79, 2003 Berman and Rosenfeld: World Oil Magazine, July, 2007 Berman and Rosenfeld: GCSSEPM Perkins Conf. Proceedings, 2007 Rosenfeld: HGS Bulletin, October, 2008 Rosenfeld: GCSSEPM Perkins Conf. Proceedings, 2014

4 Paleocene - Eocene GOM Anomalies Lobo Slide blocks Chattahoochee River unconformity Suwanee Channel / DeSoto Canyon Unconformity & karst In deep water Chicontepec, et.al. paleocanyons Campeche Veracruz Basin calcarenites salt and canyons El Bosque redbeds

5 Bathymetry of the eastern GOM 700 mt 1800 mt 400 mt

6 Isolation Mechanism

7 Cuba - Florida Collision LATE CRETACOUS PALEOCENE PALEOCENE / EOCENE Slab separation Adapted from Hutson, Mann and Renne, 1998

8 Climax Drawdown Shoreline LAND

9 Isolation Effects Rapid evaporative drawdown of Gulf Isostatic + tectonic uplift created a land bridge across Florida, Cuba, the Bahamas and Yucatan Extensive slumping of clastic shelf edges and slopes Canyon incision across shelves and slopes Bypass and recycling of sediments into the central Gulf Karsting of exposed shallow and deep basin carbonates Salt deposition in barred basins (i.e. Veracruz Basin) Massive hydocarbon release from hydrates and breached reservoirs triggered P/E Thermal Maximum(?)

10 Wilcox section Union Oil Trident well (2001) feet Green zones = oil sands ~400 mts. >70% sand Blickwede et al., 2004

11 Whopper Sand in the Great White well Contemporaneous shelf break 400 mts. Note the sharp base and top = sudden, not gradational changes Berman and Rosenfeld, 2008

12 Wilcox Regional Cross Section AC 857 Great White #1 AC 859 Tobago AC 903 #1 Trident 1 AC 818 Tiger AC 951 Toledo 1 AC 557 BAHA 2 GR 13 mi. 5 mi. 7 mi. 10 mi. 27 mi. 0 KC 681 Sardinia 1 KC 919 Hadrian 1 WR 759 Jack 1 WR 678 St Malo 2 WR 724 Das Bump WR 469 Chinook WR 206 Cascade 0.1 Feet TVD MD mi. 57 mi. 39 mi. 7 mi. 22 mi. 33 mi. 16 mi. 32 mi. 58 mi. AT 63 Champlain #4 AT 336 Showboat 38 mi. 34 mi. 1 A Rains, Zarra & Meyer, B C 1 AT 182 Sturgis DRES 150 Top Wilcox 51.8 DLS (Wilcox 1a) 55.5 SB (Wilcox 1b) AT 574 Neptune #1 3 E 4 F G 57.5 Ma SB (Wilcox 2) 2 Announced Discovery H 58.5 Ma SB (Wilcox 3) Davy Jones Dry hole (non-commercial hydrocarbons encountered Well Log Cross Section 3 I 59.2 Ma SB (Wilcox 4) 0.8 my >1500 m/my Midway 60.0 SB Cretaceous 65.5 SB Whopper Sandstone Sturgis Showboat North Platte Tiber 4 Kaskida BAHA Tucker Sardinia Tobago Diamond Back 600 kms. end-to-end Champlain Great White Trident Tiger Toledo Hadrian St. Malo Jack Tonga Neptune Atlan tis Cascade Chinook Stones Das Bump

13 Deep Water Wilcox Sandstone Trend = Proven sandstone area Yoakum Hardin St. Landry Late Paleocene Shelf Margin Rio Grande Davy Jones Mexican Perdido Bejuco - La Laja Chicontepec Puskón Coatzacoalcos Grijalva - Usumacinta KMZ

14 "Forced Regression" Sequence 15 cm. Successive cannibalization of earlier fans by continual lowering of base level Posamentier et al, 1992

15 Paleocanyons Yoakum Paleocanyon Late Paleocene Shelf Margin Gulf of Mexico From Galloway, Dingus and Paige, 1991

16 Yoakum Paleocanyon ~ 100 kms long 1200 meters deep Cuts across shelf SHELF SHELF From Galloway, Dingus and Paige, 1991

17 Seismic Section Yoakum Paleocanyon P. Britt, HGS Bulletin April, 2006

18 Yoakum Paleocanyon Upper Wilcox Upper Wilcox Massive Sands Shelf Sands 3 Km m. Decompacted Shale fill Shale ~800 mt., Lower Wilcox Shelf Sands V.E. = ~3X From Hoyt, 1959

19 Central Mexico Paleocanyons Bejuco-La Laja Paleocanyon Chicontepec Paleocanyon Tuxpan Platform Youngest subcrop = Paleocene Oldest Fill = Eocene Nautla Paleocanyon Adapted from Pemex, 1999

20 Chicontepec Paleocanyon eroded into lithified carbonates Poza Rica Field Cretaceous subcrop Jurassic subcrop Adapted from Busch and Govela, 1978

21 Poza Rica 3D Seismic (Time slice) Sinkholes in Cretaceous deep water carbonates Horbury, 2004

22 Campo Poza Rica Faja de Oro SO NE 1500 mt. From Coogan, Bebout and Maggio, 1972 Adapted from Coogan, Bebout and Maggio, 1972

23 Cerro Azul # 4: February, ,858 bopd 24 degree API TD = 2,000 feet

24 Veracruz Basin-Oceanic Crust VCB From Bird et. al, 2005

25 N Veracruz Basin separated from main GOM by a basaltic transform ridge (Anegada High) Mataespino 101-B well Veracruz Basin Bird et. al, 2005

26 Copied with permission of Pemex Pemex Mataespino-101B 0.0 GAMMA SONIC NEUTRON 's of meters of gray EOCENE shale 30 m. of red-brown saltbearing section (dip corrected) Core is in Veracruz

27 The Southeastern Gulf (Florida and Yucatan margins)

28

29 Erosional Aspect of the Florida and Yucatán Carbonate Escarpments Abyssal Plain >3,000 mts. below sea level Detailed Bathymetry FLORIDA CARBONATE PLATFORM Florida Canyon YUCATAN SLOPE NOTE: No Paleocene/Eocene tectonic activity, topographic relief, nor major rivers.

30 1803 Florida Canyon (depths in meters)

31 Typical minor canyon kms. 1 : 1 2,000 mt. 3,000 mt

32 A: Sinkholes on Florida Slope > 3300

33 Seismic Line Location SF-6B CUBA YUCATAN

34 Seismic Line SF-6B To Cuba 3,000 mt. water depth UK/T Water depth > 3,000 m. Basal Eocene Erosion Surface MCSB From Marton and Buffler, 1999

35 A B Chicxulub Crater

36 Area A Starved margin (no barrier reef) No nearby topographic relief No major surface drainage Lithified carbonate outcrops

37 3700 m 1100 m 900 m 20 km 135 m 730 m

38 Area A - detail = sink holes

39 Area B (NW Yucatan Margin)

40 Reconnection and Refill

41 Breakthrough and Refill

42 Thalweg >800 meters into lithified mid-cretaceous carbonates DSDP Leg 77, 1981 Straits of Florida Site 535

43 DSDP Leg 77, Site 535 (site is on the flank of the thalweg)

44 Sinkholes and Erosion in Deep Florida Strait Florida Slope Approx. area of Cuban 3D Bathymetry in meters Shown at Barcelona AAPG, 2005

45 S Sinkholes and Erosion in Florida Strait on 3D Seismic Water depth~ 2,000 mt. Sinkholes N Cretaceous Basinal Carbonates

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47 Bahamas Channel Top Cretaceous (Bahamas Petroleum Company website) Bahamas Platform CUBA

48 SW Bahamas Channel Seismic NE Erosion surface From Bahamas Petroleum Company website

49 Conclusion: Anomalies that the drawdown explains and other hypotheses don t: Sudden inception and cessation of massive sheet sand deposition at least 450 kms outboard of the shelfbreak. Rapid excavation of deep canyons across tens of kms of shelf without tectonic uplift or global drop in sea level. Erosion of hard rock in the deep basin (karst and canyons). Deep thalweg in the Cuba - Florida/Bahamas suture zone.

50 Everyone s an Expert on the Gulf

51 Occam s Razor Rules! "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. A. Einstein