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Depositional and stratigraphic architecture of a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic depositional system in the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) of the Southern Midcontinent, Oklahoma, USA

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Abstract

The Anadarko Basin of the North American Midcontinent has been explored by the hydrocarbon industry for decades, and recent efforts have created an opportunity to analyze robust modern geologic datasets for investigating the depositional and stratigraphic architecture of Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) reservoirs in the region. Core-based facies analysis coupled with the integration of geophysical well logs and previous biostratigraphic studies are the fundamental building blocks for investigating the evolution of a carbonate depositional system to a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic system. This evolution was facilitated by global climatic changes during the transition from greenhouse to icehouse conditions during the assembly of Pangaea. Initial deposition in the region was characterized by marine transgression and followed by a period of stabilization, with aggradation of the carbonate system on the Burlington shelf and coeval deposition of biostromal sponge gardens and outer ramp facies in the study area. This event was followed by progradation of the carbonate system, establishing the Meramecian (Viséan) Boardman ramp margin in north-central Oklahoma, where thick successions of carbonate shoal and proximal storm deposits accumulated. The final depositional episode was characterized by an abrupt transition from carbonate to siliciclastic deposition, in which thick successions of Chesterian (Viséan-Serpukhovian) siliciclastics prograded from the Boardman ramp margin into the Anadarko Basin. As a result of this depositional evolution, the reservoir architecture changes across the Anadarko Basin as progradational proximal carbonate facies transition to storm-dominated ramp margin conditions, and finally to the more prolific unconventionally targeted siliciclastic siltstone and mudstone facies of the outer ramp.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Devon Energy for allowing access to their extensive core data sets for this study, along with the Oklahoma Geological Survey staff at the Oklahoma Petroleum Information Center, who facilitated numerous core preparation and sample requests. We would also like to thank Cory Godwin for the meaningful discussions on biostratigraphic outcrop studies and their relationship into the Anadarko Basin subsurface. Finally, would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments that greatly improved this paper.

Funding

This work was supported by Devon Energy and Oklahoma State University. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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  1. Boone Pickens School of Geology, Oklahoma State University, 105 Noble Research Center, Stillwater, OK, USA

    Jamar Bynum, Jack Pashin & Conn Wethington

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  1. Jamar Bynum
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Correspondence to Jamar Bynum.

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Bynum, J., Pashin, J. & Wethington, C. Depositional and stratigraphic architecture of a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic depositional system in the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) of the Southern Midcontinent, Oklahoma, USA. Facies 68, 18 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-022-00655-2

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