Subsidence beneath a playa basin on the Southern High Plains, U.S.A.: Evidence from shallow seismic data

Abstract

Shallow seismic data from Sevenmile Basin, a large ephemeral lake (playa) basin in the Texas Panhandle, reveal that subsidence has been an important agent in basin formation. Several hypotheses exist for the origin of thousands of playa basins on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico, including eolian deflation, evaporite or carbonate dissolution and subsidence, piping, and animal activity. Sevenmile Basin is 5.5 x 3.6 km across and 14 m deep and contains 20 m of lacustrine and eolian sediments that interfinger with the Quaternary Blackwater Draw Formation. Below these sediments is the upper Tertiary Ogallala Formation, which overlies Permian or Triassic bedrock. Seismic reflection and refraction data were collected from the unlithified and variably saturated clastic sequence beneath Sevenmile Basin to investigate the geological history and hydrogeological framework of playa basins, which recharge the regionally important Ogallala aquifer. Three-layer velocity models provide good solutions for reversed refraction data. Near-surface p-wave velocities (layer 1) range from 349 to 505 m/s, layer 2 velocities range from 806 to 851 m/s, and layer 3 velocities range from 2,037 to 2,161 m/s. Shallow test holes and drillers' logs suggest that layer 1 is composed of playa and upper Blackwater Draw Formation deposits, layer 2 consists of lower Blackwater Draw Formation and upper Ogallala Formation deposits, and layer 3 represents a competent and partly saturated zone near the top of the Ogallala aquifer. Reflection sections show a middle Ogallala reflector, a reflector at the top of Permian or Triassic bedrock, and internal bedrock reflectors that indicate a structural low beneath Sevenmile Basin. Increasing relief with age, from 14 m at the surface to 70 m on the middle Ogallala reflector to 110 m at the base of the Ogallala, is interpreted as evidence of subsidence of underlying Permian evaporite-bearing strata before or during Ogallala deposition. Ogallala and Blackwater Draw Formation thicknesses greater than bedrock Ogallala deposition and may continue to the present. Virtually all playa basins on the Southern High Plains are underlain by Permian evaporite-bearing strata; some basins have been affected by dissolution-induced subsidence. Shallow seismic methods are an ideal approach to determine the relative importance of subsidence in basin formation.