The Overthrust Belt of Western North America

Abstract

The Overthrust Belt extends for 5000 mi (8000 km) from the Brooks Range in Alaska to the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico. It consists of northeastward vergent thrust and fold structures involving late Precambrian to early Tertiary sedimentary section. These sediments represent deposition off the western rift margin, formed in late Precambrian time, of the North American Precambrian craton. The northeastward thrusting continued throughout the Mesozoic as a response to the convergence of the East Pacific Plate with the North American Plate. This convergence resulted in subduction beneath the North American Plate except at the northwest end (the Brooks Range) where the result was obduction. Convergence ceased when the west edge of the East Pacific Plate reached the subduction zone. The sedimentary section involved in the Thrust Belt contains good Devonian to Cretaceous hydrocarbon source rocks, and Ordovician to traps related to the thrusting (simple thrust sheets, imbricate thrust sheets, folded thrust sheets, step anticlines, footwall cutoffs, footwall anticlines, etc.). Field methods involved in exploration for hydrocarbons include field geological mapping, remote sensing (aerial photography and Landsat imagery), various seismic refraction and seismic reflection techniques (including modern detailed three dimension surveys) and potential field methods such as gravity and magneticmore » surveying. Studies of the field data include paleontology, source rock and hydrocarbon migration studies, structural and stratigraphic analyses, and the processing of geophysical data. This work has succeeded in two major areas: the Western Canadian Rocky Mountain Foothills, a major gas province producing mainly from Paleozoic reservoirs; and the Wyoming-Idaho-Utah portion of the thrust belt, also a major gas producer from Paleozoic reservoirs and, in addition, a major oil producer from the Jurassic Nugget Sandstone.« less