Geology and Occurrence of Natural Gas in Oriskany in Faulted Anticlines with Particular Reference to Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York Producing Area: ABSTRACT

Abstract

The Oriskany sandstone, which has been important as a source of natural gas in the Appalachian area, has been productive in 66 different pools throughout the appalachian area. Many of the pools are small, and some of them were discovered many years ago when the Oriskany was not recognized as the producing formation. Most of the pools have resulted from structural trapping, although more than half of the total reserve of gas has been found in a large pool in West Virginia which is productive chiefly because of an interruption in porosity in an updip direction. Over 1½ trillion cubic feet of gas reserves have been discovered in the Oriskany since 1930. In northern Pennsylvania and southern New York a producing province including 34 pools has been developed between 1930 and the present. Practically all of these pools result from structural traps caused by doming and thrust faulting along a series of prominent anticlines. The province is described and a structure map of the area is presented. One of the most prominent producing trends (the Hebron-Harrison-Woodhull area), involving a complicated faulting pattern and the merging of two anticlines, is described in detail by means of surface and subsurface structure maps and cross sections. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2154------------