Abstract
Closed extensional microfractures are useful indicators of paleostress directions in shallowly buried quartz-cemented quartz-arenites of the Lower Cretaceous Travis Peak Formation, a tabular sandstone and shale unit approximately 670 m thick that was deposited in the gradually subsiding northern Gulf of Mexico basin. The closed microfractures are syndiagenetic fluid-inclusion-rich planes that have an ENE strike that is subparallel to contemporary quartz-filled extension veins and regional normal faults, indicating that closed microfractures contain the maximum paleostress direction. These microstructures are potentially useful for mapping paleostress trajectories in passive margin and platform settings, particularly where samples are obtained from core. Previous experimental studies of microfracture closure suggest that microfractures evolved into fluid-inclusion planes by dendritic quartz precipitation. In East Texas, microfracture closure may have occurred at temperatures as low as 85°C and depths as shallow as 1500 m.
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