COINCIDENCE OF FRACTURE INTENSIFICATION DOMAINS WITH TRENTON-BLACK RIVER FAULTING IN THE FINGER LAKES REGION, NEW YORK STATE: PART I, SENECA LAKE

The Ordovician Trenton-Black River section is currently the target for gas exploration in the Finger Lakes region of the Appalachian Plateau. The locations of these faults are controlled by structures in the Precambrian basement. Our research conducted along the eastern shore of Seneca Lake, demonstrates that the trends of deep faults can be located at the surface through the integration of fractures intensification domains (FIDs), soil gas anomalies and lineaments. This process allows faults to be projected away from a single seismic line.

We collected fracture data along a N-S swath in order to determine if deep structure observed in proprietary seismic and inferred from aeromagnetics is reflected in the surface fractures and lineaments. The fracture data include nine characteristics recorded for over 2550 fractures observed in Devonian Catskill Delta sediments. We separated the fractures into sets and calculated the fracture frequency for each fracture set. Modified rose diagrams together with a N-striking transect (that displays fracture frequency of ENE-striking fractures) reveal that the fracture patterns are not constant along the swath. In the southern portion of the transect, northerly-striking FIDs are evident and ENE-striking fractures are subdominant. In the central and northern part of the transect, ENE-striking fractures and FIDs are common. The location of the ENE-striking FIDs are coincident with ENE-trending Landsat and aeromagnetic lineaments as well as soil gas anomalies (Nelson et al., 2001). The FIDs are also coincident with lineaments observed in DEMs and on 7.5' topographic quadrangles. This coincidence suggests that reactivation of the Trenton-Black River faults guided fracture development in the Devonian section.