DEPOSITION OF SAUK SEQUENCE ROCKS ON THE UNDERLYING UNCONFORMABLE PROTEROZOIC COMPLEX IN THE OHIO REGION DEMONSTRATES THE EMERGENCE OF A BROAD PLATFORM DURING CAMBRIAN TIME

Recent subsurface correlations using wireline and core data from deep oil and gas wells redefine Sauk sequence rocks in the Ohio region. Stratigraphic nomenclature and boundaries for the lower part of the Sauk sequence were refined and updated. Results indicate that following the Grenville Orogeny and East Continent rifting, and about a half-billion years of subsequent erosion, a broad platform developed during the Cambrian Period, marking the start of the Paleozoic Era on Laurentia. Further, essential elements of basin architecture in the Ohio region appear to be fivefold: (1) the Waverly Arch; (2) the northwestern Rome Trough high, a rift shoulder in southern Ohio, and adjacent Kentucky and West Virginia; (3) the north­-south trending Grenville front boundary zone of west central Ohio; (4) the stable cratonic Ohio Platform; and (5) adjacent structural and depositional sags (proto Illinois-Michigan Basin, proto Appalachian Basin, and Rome Trough). Development of the Cincinnati Arch appears to have been unaffected by either the Waverly Arch or Ohio Platform, as neither feature exhibits tectonic coincidence with this later formed feature. This revised framework provides new information pertaining to saline reservoir studies for industrial waste and brine disposal, gas storage, CO² sequestration, and hydrocarbon exploration.