Thrust Faulting and Hydrocarbon Generation: DISCUSSION

Abstract

Following the discovery of large volumes of hydrocarbons in the Cordilleran thrust belt of southwestern Wyoming and northern Utah, Angevine and Turcotte (1983), Edman and Surdam (1984), and Furlong and Edman (1984) discussed the role of thrust faulting in hydrocarbon generation. The authors concluded that overthrusting plays an important or even dominant role in the process of hydrocarbon generation in overthrust terrains. These conclusions may be in error because they are based on a mathematical analysis of thermal and geologic models that have little resemblance to actual thrust-belt geology. In this discussion, the authors discuss shortcomings of the thermal model used in the papers referred to above; emphasize the differences between their model and the geologic facts as they exist in thrust belts in general and in western Wyoming in particular; and caution readers about applying the conclusions based on such a model in the search for hydrocarbons. They contend that the temperature effects of thrust faulting were rather insignificant in the process of hydrocarbon generation in the Wyoming thrust belt.