Abstract
Bell Creek field, Montana, produces from Albian (Lower Cretaceous) Muddy barrier island and valley-fill sandstones. The origin(s) for the producing sandstones are somewhat controversial. Evidence presented herein supports a barrier island origin for the major producing reservoir at Bell Creek. Varying scales of heterogeneities, which are deterrents or barriers to fluid flow, are associated with the barrier. Recent work in 1988 suggests that to the south, in Wyoming, time-equivalent deposits and by inference suggests that Bell Creek is not a barrier but a strand-plain deposit. Characteristics common to Bell Creek and supportive of a barrier island are (1) washover facies, interbedded with lagoonal mudstone, occur in cores on the landward northeast side of unit A, (2) foraminiferal species indicate less-than-normal marine salinities in lagoonal mudstones, (3) shoreface sandstones thin or are absent in wells on the landward side of the field, (4) in analogous outcrops and in cores, foreshore, and/or upper shoreface deposits locally occur above middle shoreface deposits, and (5) backshore sandstones with landward southeast flow directions occur above washover deposits in analogous outcrops.
Published Version
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