A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE SHO-VEL-TUM FIELD AND CORRELATION TO THE ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS USING BALANCED CROSS-SECTIONS, STEPHENS AND CARTER COUNTIES, OKLAHOMA

The Sho-Vel-Tum complex is the largest oil and gas accumulation in Oklahoma. A subsurface structural analysis is underway which will test the hypothesis that deformation and fault offsets increase from the Arbuckle Block westward through Tatums, Sholem, and Velma Fields (Sho-Vel-Tum). An increase in deformation would suggest the Arbuckle Block collided with the rigid Wichita Block during the Pennsylvanian Orogeny. A collision would cause a change in the Arbuckle deformation style creating irregular, oblique, transpressive deformation blocks.

Strike line maps and dip vector maps will identify areas of high structural variation, and rapid changes in curvature. The dip vector maps will provide an approximation of apparent formation thickness in the log signatures of dipping layers. Three cross-sections have been constructed along a northeast-southwest trend perpendicular to regional strike. The sections intersect the three smaller fields and extend from the southwest edge of the exposed Arbuckle uplift toward the west where the Arbuckle Block meets the Wichita Block in the subsurface. Preliminary results reveal that deformation intensifies to the west and into shallower levels toward the west.

The sections will be balanced using the line length method, and the resulting geological model will provide a better understanding of the way the Arbuckle system behaved during the Pennsylvanian Orogeny. The results of this study will contribute to the understanding of the geologic evolution of this region by illustrating mechanisms and structural styles within the Arbuckle-Sho-Vel-Tum System.