Date of Graduation

8-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Geology (MS)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Geosciences

Advisor/Mentor

Zachry, Doy L.

Committee Member

Manger, Walter L.

Second Committee Member

Brahana, John V.

Keywords

Earth sciences; Arkoma basin; Atokan; Geology; Lithostratigraphy; Pennsylvanian period; Reservoir development

Abstract

The Arkoma Basin is a peripheral foreland arc basin associated with the Ouachita orogenic belt. In Arkansas, the basin is bounded by the Ouachita belt to the south and the Ozark Dome to the north. Sedimentary rocks of early to middle Atokan age are present in the shallow subsurface at the northern margin of the Arkoma Basin in northwestern Arkansas. Sedimentary units of this time interval reflect basinal subsidence, and the transition of the Arkoma Basin from a passive margin shelf to a rapidly evolving foreland arc basin. Sediment sources from the north and east produced a thickened Lower and Middle Atoka record across the basin.

Using PETRA, wireline logs were used to construct two sets of stratigraphic cross-sections that document the depositional changes that occurred during Arkoma Basin subsidence and associated structural events in northwestern Arkansas. Both sets of cross-sections extend west to east with one set in the north: cross-section North and the other set in the south: cross-section South. The Lower Atoka, Areci and Tackett were each deposited as a discrete interval, but the component sands of each unit are different reflecting different environment dynamics and sources. This explains why gas reservoir development in the Atoka Formation of the Arkoma Basin is so variable.

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