Paleocene Eocene Drawdown and Refill of the Gulf of Mexico Concept History and Status by Joshua Rosenfeld
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.
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
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
Bathymetry of the eastern GOM 700 mt 1800 mt 400 mt
Isolation Mechanism
Cuba - Florida Collision LATE CRETACOUS PALEOCENE PALEOCENE / EOCENE Slab separation Adapted from Hutson, Mann and Renne, 1998
Climax Drawdown Shoreline LAND
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(?)
Wilcox section Union Oil Trident well (2001) feet Green zones = oil sands ~400 mts. >70% sand Blickwede et al., 2004
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
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 20 100 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, 2008 2 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
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
"Forced Regression" Sequence 15 cm. Successive cannibalization of earlier fans by continual lowering of base level Posamentier et al, 1992
Paleocanyons Yoakum Paleocanyon Late Paleocene Shelf Margin Gulf of Mexico From Galloway, Dingus and Paige, 1991
Yoakum Paleocanyon ~ 100 kms long 1200 meters deep Cuts across shelf SHELF SHELF From Galloway, Dingus and Paige, 1991
Seismic Section Yoakum Paleocanyon P. Britt, HGS Bulletin April, 2006
Yoakum Paleocanyon Upper Wilcox Upper Wilcox Massive Sands Shelf Sands 3 Km. 1200 m. Decompacted Shale fill Shale ~800 mt., Lower Wilcox Shelf Sands V.E. = ~3X From Hoyt, 1959
Central Mexico Paleocanyons Bejuco-La Laja Paleocanyon Chicontepec Paleocanyon Tuxpan Platform Youngest subcrop = Paleocene Oldest Fill = Eocene Nautla Paleocanyon Adapted from Pemex, 1999
Chicontepec Paleocanyon eroded into lithified carbonates Poza Rica Field Cretaceous subcrop Jurassic subcrop Adapted from Busch and Govela, 1978
Poza Rica 3D Seismic (Time slice) Sinkholes in Cretaceous deep water carbonates Horbury, 2004
Campo Poza Rica Faja de Oro SO NE 1500 mt. From Coogan, Bebout and Maggio, 1972 Adapted from Coogan, Bebout and Maggio, 1972
Cerro Azul # 4: February, 1921 260,858 bopd 24 degree API TD = 2,000 feet
Veracruz Basin-Oceanic Crust VCB From Bird et. al, 2005
N Veracruz Basin separated from main GOM by a basaltic transform ridge (Anegada High) Mataespino 101-B well Veracruz Basin Bird et. al, 2005
Copied with permission of Pemex Pemex Mataespino-101B 0.0 GAMMA 120.0 140 SONIC 40 0.0 NEUTRON 6000 100's of meters of gray EOCENE shale 30 m. of red-brown saltbearing section (dip corrected) Core is in Veracruz
The Southeastern Gulf (Florida and Yucatan margins)
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.
1803 Florida Canyon (depths in meters) 2239 2683 3329 2333 3481 3406 3256 2310
Typical minor canyon 1998 2108 3221 2690 2364 1990 10 kms. 1 : 1 2,000 mt. 3,000 mt. 2069 3170
A: Sinkholes on Florida Slope 1196 1037 1097 1066 > 3300
Seismic Line Location SF-6B CUBA YUCATAN
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
A B Chicxulub Crater
Area A Starved margin (no barrier reef) No nearby topographic relief No major surface drainage Lithified carbonate outcrops
3700 m 1100 m 900 m 20 km 135 m 730 m
Area A - detail = sink holes
Area B (NW Yucatan Margin)
Reconnection and Refill
Breakthrough and Refill
Thalweg >800 meters into lithified mid-cretaceous carbonates DSDP Leg 77, 1981 Straits of Florida Site 535
DSDP Leg 77, Site 535 (site is on the flank of the thalweg)
Sinkholes and Erosion in Deep Florida Strait Florida Slope Approx. area of Cuban 3D Bathymetry in meters Shown at Barcelona AAPG, 2005
S Sinkholes and Erosion in Florida Strait on 3D Seismic Water depth~ 2,000 mt. Sinkholes N Cretaceous Basinal Carbonates
Bahamas Channel Top Cretaceous (Bahamas Petroleum Company website) Bahamas Platform CUBA
SW Bahamas Channel Seismic NE Erosion surface From Bahamas Petroleum Company website
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.
Everyone s an Expert on the Gulf
Occam s Razor Rules! "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. A. Einstein