Mississippian Facies Relationships, Eastern Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma

Mississippian strata in the eastern Anadarko basin record a gradual deepening of the basin. Late and post-Mississippian tectonism (Wichita and Arbuckle orogenies) fragmented the single large basin into the series of paired basins and uplifts recognized in the southern half of Oklahoma today. Lower Mississippian isopach and facies trends (Sycamore and Caney Formations) indicate that basinal strike in the study area (southeastern Anadarko basin) was predominantly east-west. Depositional environment interpretations made for Lower Mississippian strata suggest that the basin was partially sediment starved and exhibited a low shelf-to-basin gradient. Upper Mississippian isopach and facies trends suggest that basinal strike within the study area shifted from dominantly east-west to dominantly northwest-southeast due to Late Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian uplift along the Nemaha ridge. Within the study area, the Chester Formation, composed of gray to dove-gray shales with interbedded limestones deposited on a carbonate shelf, thins depositionally into the basin and is thinnest at its facies boundary with the Springer Group and the upper portion of the Caney Formation. As basin subsidence rates accelerated, the southern edge of the Chester carbonate shelf was progressively drowned, causing a backstepping of the Chester Formation calcareous shale and carbonate facies. Springer Group sands and black more » shales transgressed northward over the drowned Chester Formation shelf. « less