Record Details
Subsurface geology of the South Cuyama oil field and adjacent areas, southern Coast Ranges, California
ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Subsurface geology of the South Cuyama oil field and adjacent areas, southern Coast Ranges, California |
| Names |
Schwing, Hans Frederick
(creator) Yeats, Robert S. (advisor) |
| Date Issued | 1983-05-06 (iso8601) |
| Note | Graduation date: 1984 |
| Abstract | Subsurface mapping was used to determine the structure and geologic history of the South Cuyama dome and part of the Russell fault in the South Cuyama oil field area. Deformed Late Cretaceous and/or early Tertiary marine strata are unconformably overlain by the late Oligocene to early Miocene Vaqueros Formation (Quail Canyon Sandstone Member, Soda Lake Shale Member, and Painted Rock Sandstone Member) northeast of the Russell fault. Rapid subsidence abruptly downdropped shelf deposits in the transgressive Quail Canyon Sandstone, ending shallow-marine deposition. Warping of the Quail Canyon shelf formed elongate west-northwest-trending submarine troughs and highs at the same time as the basinal Soda Lake Shale Member was deposited. Locally, the Soda Lake Shale ponded in topographic lows floored by Quail Canyon Sandstone. In addition, prograding turbidites of the Soda Lake Shale Member and shelf deposits of the Painted Rock Sandstone thinned over the highs, including the proto-South Cuyama dome. Renewed subsidence during the late Saucesian accompanied deposition of the Saltos Shale Member of the Monterey Formation. Late Saucesian-early Relizian movement along the northeast-trending Cox normal fault set in part controlled further growth of the proto-South Cuyama dome and thinning of the Saltos Shale over structural highs. Shelf and shallow-marine deposits of the Branch Canyon Sandstone and overlying undifferentiated Branch Canyon Sandstone-Santa Margarita Formation (BCSM) prograded across the basin during the middle and late Miocene. Major rightslip along the Russell fault juxtaposed contrasting coeval stratigraphic sections prior to deposition of the Pliocene(?) Morales(?) Formation. Northeast-trending normal faults and northwest-trending strike-slip faults formed across the dome during deposition of the BCSM in response to right-lateral wrench faulting on the Russell fault. The Morales(?) Formation conformably overlies the BCSM and probably represents the transition from marine to nonmarine deposition; the uppermost part possibly includes Pleistocene alluvial deposits. Right slip along the Russell fault was accompanied by folding of at least the lowermost Morales(?) into the present-day South Cuyama elongate dome subparallel to the Russell fault. Right-stepping en echelon axial culminations on the dome were offset 4,500 feet right-laterally by the Russell fault. The south-dipping South Cuyama thrust fault tectonically overrode the Russell fault, South Cuyama dome, and Pleistocene alluvial deposits, folding and thrusting Eocene and younger strata of the Sierra Madre Mountains northward. The north-dipping Morales fault thrust Paleocene to Miocene strata of the Caliente Range southward over Pliocene(?)-Pleistocene alluvial deposits during the late Pleistocene. Between these two thrust faults is the present-day Cuyama Valley. Structures in the South Cuyama oil field and adjacent areas formed in response to recurrent right-lateral wrench tectonism along the Russell fault during the middle to late Miocene and possibly from latest Oligocene to Pliocene time. The complex faulting and folding associated with wrench tectonism are obscured by the Pleistocene-Holocene contractile regime. |
| Genre | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Topic | Oil fields -- California -- Cuyama River Valley |
| Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/41852 |
