3-D sedimentological and geophysical studies of clastic reservoir analogs: Facies architecture, reservoir properties, and flow behavior within delta front facies elements of the Cretaceous Wall Creek Member, Frontier Formation, Wyoming Page: 1 of 12
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DOE Final report #DE-FG02-01ER15166
DOE Project Final Report
GRANTEE: Center for Lithospheric Studies, The University of Texas at Dallas, P.O. Box 830688
(FA31), Richardson, TX 75083-0688
GRANT: DE-FG0301-ER15166
TITLE: 3-D sedimentological and geophysical studies of elastic reservoir analogs: Facies
architecture, reservoir properties, and flow behavior within delta front facies elements
of the Cretaceous Wall Creek Member, Frontier Formation, Wyoming
PERSONS IN CHARGE:
Janok P. Bhattacharya, Wk. 713/743-4720, Fax: 713/748-7906, e-mail:
jpbhattacharya@uh.edu
George A. McMechan. Wk: 972-883-2419; Fax 972-883-2829; e-mail
mcmec@utdallas.edu
Abstract
This project examined the internal architecture of delta front sandstones at two locations
within the Turonian-age Wall Creek Member of the Frontier Formation, in Wyoming. The project
involved traditional outcrop field work integrated with core-data, and 2D and 3D ground penetrating
radar (GPR) imaging from behind the outcrops. The fluid-flow engineering work, handled through
a collaborative grant given to PI Chris White at LSU, focused on effects on fluid flow of late-stage
calcite cement nodules in 3D.
In addition to the extensive field component, the work funded 2 PhD students (Gani and
Lee) and resulted in publication of 10 technical papers, 17 abstracts, and 4 internal field guides. PI
Bhattacharya also funded an additional 3 PhD students that worked on the Wall Creek sandstone
funded separately through an industrial consortium, two of whom graduated in the fall 2006
((Sadeque and Vakarelov). These additional funds provided significant leverage to expand the work
to include a regional stratigraphic synthesis of the Wall Creek Member of the Frontier Formation,
in addition to the reservoir-scale studies that DOE directly funded.
Awards given to PI Bhattacharya included the prestigious AAPG Distinguished Lecture
Award, which involved a tour of about 25 Universities and Geological Societies in the US and
Canada in the fall of 2005 and Spring of 2006. Bhattacharya gave two talks, one entitled
"Applying Deltaic and Shallow Marine Outcrop Analogs to the Subsurface", which highlighted
the DOE sponsored work and the other titled "Martian River Deltas and the Origin of Life". The
outcrop analog talk was given at about 1/2 of the venues visited.
Results from the Frontier Formation Study
The Frontier Formation is an Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) elastic wedge that
has been broadly interpreted as deltaic in nature (Barlow and Huan, 1966; Bhattacharya and Willis,
2001). Previous work on the Wall Creek Member of the Frontier suggested that it consists of 1-3
sandstone units, separated by marine shales (Merewether et al., 1979; Winn, 1991, Figure 1). Our
new stratigraphic work (Fig., 2) shows a far more complicated allostratigraphy, that has defined 7
allomembers (Figure 2), each marked by pebble lags (Howell and Bhattacharya, 2004; Lee et al.,
2005 and in press, Sadeque and Bhattacharya, 2004, Sadeque, 2006). Several of the allomembers
internally consist of offlapping, lens shaped parasequences, interpreted as prograding delta lobes.
Allomember 6 was the focus of detailed studies at two sites, Murphy Reservoir and Raptor Ridge.
The focus at the Murphy Reservoir site (Fig. 3) was to apply GPR to map decimeter scale
geometry of a top truncated, fluvial-dominated, lowstand delta front, and to estimate the volumes of
the prograding bar deposits of the delta lobe. The outcrop shows a series of inclined, offlapping
sandstone and mudstone beds that form an upward coarsening facies succession interpreted as a1
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Bhattacharya, Janok P. & McMechan, George A. 3-D sedimentological and geophysical studies of clastic reservoir analogs: Facies architecture, reservoir properties, and flow behavior within delta front facies elements of the Cretaceous Wall Creek Member, Frontier Formation, Wyoming, report, February 16, 2007; United States. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc886580/m1/1/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.