BASEMENT CONTROL AS ORIGINS OF THE MOUNT ENTERPRISE FAULT SYSTEM (MEFS) A POSSIBLE DEGASSING MECHANISM OF THE HAYNESVILLE SHALE, RUSK COUNTY, TEXAS

The Mount Enterprise Fault System, one of the four East Texas Basin formers, is of unknown origin due to the lack of local subsurface study. It lies in an East‐West trend directly west of the border of Northwest Louisiana and East Texas. This system of normal faulting does not obviously overlie any salt pillows, turtle structures, or subcrop limits of the Louann Salt (Jackson, 1982). The hypothesis of sediment loading does not correlate with movement of the faults, in that they are northward facing listric growth faults. In addition, there is no evidence of regional flexure that denatures the lithology. In the southern half of Rusk County, gravity data acquisition, processing, and modeling will postulate the possibility of igneous basement displacing the strata. Data acquired will come from a LaCoste & Romberg Model G gravimeter, accompanied by a Trimble Pro XRS GPS system in order to achieve submeter elevational accuracy. Well logs will provide accurate density calculations. Additional structures and faulting, if present, will be located and mapped. The faulting of this region is being considered as a degassing mechanism for the Haynesville shale gas play that straddles the aforementioned border of Louisiana and Texas. If proven, the MEFS has recognizable hydrocarbon‐loss implications in the areas associated with faulting. All data gathered will be submitted to the Pan American Center for Earth and Environmental Sciences (PACES) gravity database.