Queen City Formation Research Articles

U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of the Upper Paleocene to Lower Eocene Wilcox Group, east-central Texas

Arrival of Laramide uplift sediments to the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain and northwestern Gulf of Mexico during the early Paleogene is recorded in strata of the Wilcox Group as a significant increase in sediment accumulation and with the appearance of 65–52 Ma detrital zircons that correspond with the timing of late Laramide uplift. New U-Pb dating of detrital zircons by laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) for samples obtained from the Lower Paleocene Tehuacana Member through the Lower Eocene Queen City Formation in east-central Texas identifies the Hooper Formation of the Wilcox Group as the oldest stratigraphic unit to contain 65–52 Ma ages. Late appearance of 65–52 Ma detrital zircons in the Hooper Formation is correlated with unroofed Laramide magmatic intrusions or nearly syndepositional volcaniclastic sources; whereas older detrital zircons are inferred to be derived primarily from sedimentary cover and basement rocks exposed during uplift of Laramide blocks. Potential source region and Gulf Coastal Plain detrital zircon data support a relatively similar paleodrainage area and sediment sources for east-­central Texas Tehuacana Member to Carrizo Formation and central Louisiana Wilcox Group data, and for east-central Texas Queen City Formation and central Louisiana middle-upper Claiborne Group data. South Texas Wilcox Group data contrast with data from these samples and support a different paleodrainage area and sediment sources for the south Texas region. We propose that headwaters sourced from southeastern Wyoming to the southern Rocky Mountain region delivered sediments to east-central Texas and central Louisiana during the Paleocene to Middle Eocene. Pronounced Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic detrital zircons in the lower Claiborne Group of east-central Texas and the middle-upper Claiborne Group of central Louisiana are attributed to new or unroofed recycled sediments with Grenvillian age detrital zircons incorporated from the Ouachita region and other proximal locations in the preexisting paleodrainage area. The inferred paleodrainage area for east-central Texas and central Louisiana includes most of the Rocky Mountain Laramide uplift blocks, has a southern boundary separating it from a south Texas paleodrainage, and an eastern boundary roughly coincident with the Mississippi embayment, which separates it from Appalachian Mountains drainages.

The Carlisle Site (41WD46), a Middle Caddoan Occupation on the Sabine River, Wood County, Texas

The Carlisle site (41WD46) is located on the Sabine River near its confluence with Lake Fork Creek in the Upper Sabine River Basin. As defined by Perttula, the Upper Sabine River Basin includes the area from the headwaters of the Sabine River to the mouths of Cherokee Bayou and Hatley Creek at the western edge of the Sabine Uplift. Lake Fork Creek is one of several large south-southeastward flowing streams within the Upper Sabine River Basin. The town of Mineola is approximately 13 kilometers (km) west of the Carlisle site. The site is situated at the tip of an upland projection overlooking the Sabine River floodplain, but extends into the floodplain to within ca 30 meters of the river bank. The Lake Fork Creek channel is approximately one km east of the site. While the site was an improved pasture for many years prior to 1975 and to the present, it had been previously cultivated. In fact, this cultivation may have contributed to its initial identification in the early 1930s, as well as its subsequent partial burial. The upland sandy soils derive from the Queen City Formation, and these are highly susceptible to erosion and colluvial downwasting. Colluvial deposition seems to have been a prominent factor in the burial of cultural materials along valley margins and lower footslopes elsewhere in the Upper Sabine Basin, and the site's topographic position suggests that both alluvial and colluvial deposition is responsible for the burial of the floodplain cultural deposits at the Carlisle site.

Radiostratigraphy and Heavy Mineral Content of the Weches Formation (Eocene), Nacogdoches County, Texas

ABSTRACT The Weches Formation of eastern Texas is a mudstone containing green sand-size clay aggregates. A vertical sequence of 23 samples were analyzed along an excavated cliff to determine radionuclide content. Samples average 5 ppm uranium and range from 2 ppm to about 7 ppm. Thorium averages 20 ppm and ranges from 13 ppm to almost 36 ppm. The gamma ray spectrometer employed exhibits an uncertainty of about ±10 percent (one standard deviation) at the levels measured. As there are few heavy mineral studies of mudstones, one sample of the Weches mudstone was selected for heavy mineral separation and point counting of grain mounts. A total of 2606 grains were counted giving mineral percentages of zircon (28.8), garnet (17.9), tourmaline (10.5), titanite (8.7), apatite (7.6), staurolite (6.4), green hornblende (5.2), epidote (5.1), sillimanite (2.8), monazite (2.2), kyanite (1.9), basaltic hornblende (1.5), and biotite (1.3). In addition actinolite, spinel, rutile, and collophane were observed but not counted. Previous studies found a similar heavy mineral suite in the underlying Queen City Formation, but in different proportions. Differences in heavy mineral percentages probably reflected different water flow regimes at the time of deposition. Heavy minerals in the Weches and Queen City formations are from the same general source area. Measured radionuclide ratios are similar to granitic ratios and suggest that detrital heavy minerals,particularly zircon and monazite, are the main site of uranium and thorium and their decay products in the Weches Formation.

Facies and sand‐body geometry of the Queen City (Eocene) tide‐dominated delta‐margin embayment, NW Gulf of Mexico Basin

ABSTRACTThe Queen City Formation (Eocene) displays an array of tide‐dominated coastal facies in the Tyler Basin of the northern Gulf of Mexico. This facies assemblage, which is atypical of the microtidal, wave‐dominated, coastal depositional complexes that characterize the Cenozoic Gulf basin, reflects tidal amplification in a generally protected embayment on the east flank of a strongly prograded delta system. The shallow embayment was confined to the east by contemporaneous uplift and shoaling across the Sabine Uplift. Fluvial, barrier (including ebb tidal delta), heterolithic tidal, estuary‐fill, and tidal point‐bar facies are all found at outcrop. These facies were projected into the three‐dimensional geometry of the tide‐dominated depositional complex. Inlet, estuary, and distributary‐fill sand bodies, which are linear and diporientated, dominate lithofacies maps.The Queen City facies assemblage in the Tyler Basin records a mixture of mesotidal to macrotidal environments that were interspersed in time and space with fluvial‐dominated lobes, which periodically prograded eastward from the deltaic depocentre into the flanking embayment. Queen City deposition terminated with regional marine flooding and deposition of glauconitic, fossiliferous shelf sands and muds of the Weches Formation. Transgression is marked by a prominent ravinement surface that truncates underlying facies of the tide‐dominated shore zone.

Seismic amplitude anomalies and AVO analyses at Mestena Grande Field, Jim Hogg Co., Texas

Mestena Grande field is located in northeast Jim Hogg Co., Texas. It produces gas and condensate, primarily from the middle member of the Middle Eocene Queen City formation. The producing zone is a deep, thin, high impedance sandstone which generates amplitude anomalies on the stacked data. AVO (amplitude versus offset) analyses were performed to investigate those anomalies and determine if they could aid in field development or exploration along the trend. Modeling the AVO response of a productive well has predicted an amplitude decrease with offset from a high impedance sandstone. However, amplitudes increase with offset on the crest of the field. At Mestena Grande field, three categories of seismic amplitudes correspond with production with only one exception. The first category exhibits strong amplitudes on the stacked data and amplitudes increase with offset. This amplitude category is seen around the best wells in the field. Second are the moderate amplitudes which do not increase with offset that surround the wells producing at moderate rates. The third category is characterized by very weak amplitudes which decrease with offset, occurring near all but one of the dry holes. The disagreement between the results of the modelling and the real data is attributed to the lack of accurate shear wave velocities and the presence of very thin beds.

A Higher Resolution Stratigraphic and Sedimentological Study of the Subsurface Queen City Formation (Eocene), Nacogdoches and Angelina Counties, Texas: ABSTRACT

The Eocene Queen City Formation is a regressive fluvial-deltaic and shallow-marine depositional unit in the East Texas basin. Subsurface core and electric well log data are being used in a detailed subsurface stratigraphic study of the Queen City Formation in a portion of East Texas. Log data from approximately 250 wells across a seven county area of east Texas were used to produce stratigraphic cross sections plus structure, formation, and net sands isopach maps showing the regional structure and distribution of Queen City facies. Structure contour maps on the Formation top and base indicate progradation onto a gently sloping, structurally uniform shelf. Formation and net sand isopach maps reveal two lobate centers, of deposition extending basinward along southeast-trending depositional axes in Houston, Trinity, and Angelina Counties. These maps also indicate interval thicknesses greater than 200 feet in southwest Houston and Trinity Counties but thinning dramatically to the east and downdip to the southeast. Net sand thicknesses vary from greater than 100 ft proximal to the Formation thicks to less than 10 ft in the more distal areas. Cores from producing fields in Angelina and Nacogdoches Counties are being used in a study of the sedimentology and depositional history of subsurfacemore » Queen City Facies. Previous studies were primarily based on well log data sets alone. Core studies indicate the Queen City Formation in this area is a dominantly fine-grained interval comprised of mudstones, siltstones, and very fine sandstones. Very thin (< 2 ft) sandstones and siltstones are generally located in the uppermost Queen City interval and are attractive shallow production targets.« less

Vertical Grain-Size Progressions as an Aid in Depositional Environment Interpretation of Queen City Formation (Eocene), East Texas: ABSTRACT

Vertical grain-size progressions of sand deposits in the Queen City Formation (Eocene) of east Texas, were studied to find textural patterns capable of distinguishing depositional environments. Results from this study indicate that certain groups of environments are easily distinguished from other groups. Lower point bar, fluvial distributary channel, and distributary-mouth bar deposits are more readily differentiated from distal bar, lower shoreface, and upper point bar deposits by their coarser mean grain size and mode, higher sand content, and more prevalent saltation mode and smaller suspension component. The lower point bar may have the coarsest mean grain size and mode. Lower shoreface deposits may be distinguished from upper point bar and distal bar sands by having a higher sand content and a consistent 3.5 phi suspension mode. Flood-tidal deltaic sands are characterized by their consistent mean grain size, mode, sorting, and predominance of the saltation mode throughout a thick single sequence. Tidal-flat sands resemble certain fluvial and fluvial-deltaic sands. The overlap in grain size traits among many of the environments is attributed to the well-sorted and fine-grained nature of the source for the Queen City sand, similarities in transport mechanisms among environments and, to a lesser degree, diagenetic changes in themore » original grain size distributions.« less

Grain Size Vertical Progressions as an Exploration Tool: ABSTRACT

Previous studies of grain size as an indicator of sandstone depositional environments have had mixed results; for that reason, the method is seldom End_Page 448------------------------------ if ever used as an exploration tool. The problem with these previous studies is that they concentrate on grain-size parameters for individual samples, and fail to recognize that various depositional environments are characterized by a number of discrete facies, each with its own characteristic sedimentary structures and grain-size populations. For that reason, vertical progressions in grain-size data are far more diagnostic of depositional environment than are scatter diagrams in which one grain-size parameter is plotted against another. Grain-size progressions for ancient sequences of the Upper Cretaceous Point Lookout formation and Eocene Queen City Formation demonstrate the value of the technique. The data show that distinctions can be made between fluvial, estuarine/tidal distributary, flood-tidal delta, foreshore, and shoreface sandstones. More importantly, our method relies on analysis of samples collected at random intervals (generally 2 ft or .6 m), so that it is applicable where sidewall cores are available. Diagenetic complications (other than those resulting from silica cementation) do not appear to threaten the sensitivity of the method. Using automated settling analysis, these data are obtained rapidly and can aid in subsurface correlation as well as determining the depositional environments of sandstones End_of_Article - Last_Page 449------------

Depositional Environment of Eocene Queen City Formation in East Texas: ABSTRACT

Lithostratigraphic correlation of the Eocene Queen City Formation in Anderson, Cherokee, and Upshur Counties reveals three distinct facies indicative of a clastic shoreline environment: (1) flood-tidal delta, (2) lower shoreface and shelf, and (3) coastal barrier-island complex. These facies were identified on the basis of diagnostic physical structures. The Eocene flood-tidal delta in Cherokee County is dominated by landward-dipping (northwest) foreset beds. This delta probably formed at the mouth of a microtidal estuary and was affected by storm processes and tidal currents. Lower Queen City shoreface and shelf structures are found in northern Cherokee County revealing the enigmatic feature of hummocky cross-stratification. These undulating sets of low-angle cross-beds are commonly affected by storm-wave processes and indicate a fairly shallow fairweather wave base during their Eocene deposition. Exposures of the Eocene coastal barrier-island complex in Upshur County reveal a regressive sequence with a back-barrier coastal marsh at the base. Successively overlying the coastal marsh are lagoon, coastal mud flat, tidal channel, and ba head-delta facies. Preservation of the vertical succession of these facies beneath the transgressive Weches formation implies continued subsidence and sedimentation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 511------------

Potassium-Argon Age Dating of Interlayered Glauconites from Eocene Queen City Formation, East Texas: ABSTRACT

X-ray characterization of green pellets from the Eocene Queen City Formation near Jacksonville, Texas, reveals that these pellets are interlayered glauconite and chlorite. Because chlorite contains no potassium, it would dilute the potassium and argon concentrations in the whole rock with respect to the glauconite. These pellets were dated using the K-Ar age method. The results give an average age of approximately 50 ± 3 m.y. for the Queen City Formation. This age may reflect the time-transgressive nature of the beds as the ages slightly south of this location are younger--45 m.y. for the overlying Weches Formation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1424------------

Queen City Formation in East Texas Embayment--Record of Riverine, Tidal, and Wave-Dominated Processes: ABSTRACT

Five distinct facies are recognized in Queen City exposures between the Trinity River valley and Louisiana boundary. These facies (fluvial, deltaic, tidal flat, barrier, and tidal delta) display distinctive suites of physical and biogenic structures, with substantial differences in paleocurrent pattern. Fluvial influx was mainly from the northwest, possibly with minor contributions from the Sabine uplift on the east. A marginal alluvial plain was transected by sandy braided streams and sinuous mixed-load channels. Very small, high-constructive shoal-water deltas and crevasse subdeltas developed mainly along the northwestern embayment margin, prograding rapidly across the shallow shelf. Barriers may have originated as destructive components of delta abandonment or as contemporaneous strike-fed features marginal to the main delta complex in the west. In either event, barriers are poorly preserved, possibly because of transgressive ravinement, but more likely because they were never developed on a major scale. Flood-tidal deltas formed at the mouths of microtidal estuaries. Like some mo ern analogs, they are significantly larger than comparable mesotidal features. They also exhibit features reflecting storm processes. Extensive back-barrier or bay-margin intertidal and subtidal flats and shoals reflect the interplay of tidal and wave-generated processes, leaving a characteristic record of variable physical energy and flow patterns. Regional depositional patterns were largely controlled by (1) location of the east Texas embayment with respect to the major deltaic depocenter, resulting in an eastward decrease in sediment supply; (2) configuration of the broadly funnel-shaped embayment which may have augmented tidal range; and (3) transition from overall progradational character, with local transgressions, to a major marine transgression that culminated in shelf sedimentation of the overlying Weches Formation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1603------------

A Second Collection of Psilotum nudum from Texas

A SECOND COLLECTION OF PSILOTUM NUDUM FROM TEXAS.-The Whisk Fern was first recorded in Texas by Donovan S. Correll (Wrightia 2: 163-165. 1960) as a collection part a single plant from Hardin County, two miles south Saratoga. Lance Rosier, who led Correll to this location, assured him of other localities in the Big Thicket. But Rosier, now deceased, never disclosed any additional localities. While conducting an inventory bog habitats in Freestone County, in the company Glen Chervenka the Soil Conversation Service, I discovered a population Psilotum ntiidiun consisting ten sterile, immature plants 8-12 cm tall. All were found growing within a three square meter area on a seepage slope at the edge a wet, marshy meadow along a tributary Mustang Creek about 22 km west Oakwood. Two specimens, L. N. Lodwick 216 (MO, TEX), were collected, and verification was by Dr. H. C. Bold, the University Texas. The specimens were growing in a wet, peaty humus 5-8 cm deep underlain by a coarse, white sand which has been mapped as a member the Queen's City Formation (Geological Atlas Texas, Palestine Sheet, February 1968). The Psilottun was associated with a dense canopy Post Oak (Quercus stellata), Water Oak (Q. nigra), and Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera). Sphagnum subsecundlam was an intermittent ground cover in suitable microhabitats, but due to the dense shade, little ground cover occurred nearby other than the Sphaglnum. The only disturbance to the area is grazing by cattle, and it is unlikely that any other disturbance is imminent. This collection Psilotumn is the first recorded for the Post Oak Savannah region Texas and represents a disjunction approximately 200 km to the northwest Correll's collection, which is in the Pineywoods east Texas.Laurence N. Lodwick, Resource Mcanagement Section, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, A lstin, TX 78701.

Depositional Systems and Oil-Gas Reservoirs in Queen City Formation (Eocene), Texas: ABSTRACT

Regional surface and subsurface studies indicate that thick deltaic (Queen City Formation) and thin shelf (Reklaw and Weches Formations) sequences compose the stratigraphic interval between the top of the Wilcox Group and the base of the Sparta Formation. In East Texas, the Queen City Formation accumulated as part of a high-constructive, lobate delta system; and in South Texas, as part of a high-destructive, wave-dominated delta system. In South Texas, principal facies are meander-belt sand, lagoonal mud, stacked coastal barriers, and prodelta-shelf mud facies; in East Texas, delta plain, delta front, and prodelta facies are dominant; and in Central Texas, the principal facies are strandplain sands originated by southwestward longshore drift of sediments from the high-con tructive delta system. Facies distribution, composition, and size of the deltas in East Texas are similar to lobes of the Holocene high-constructive Mississippi delta system and to ancient deltas in the lower part of the Wilcox and in the Jackson Groups of the Gulf Coast basin. Fluvial-deltaic sediments of South Texas are comparable to Pleistocene high-destructive wave-dominated facies on the Surinam coast, to the Holocene Rhone delta system, and to ancient deltas in the upper part of the Wilcox Group. Queen City deltas prograded gulfward over shelf muds and glauconites of the Reklaw Formation; they are overlain by comparable shelf facies of the Weches Formation. In East Texas, deltaic facies wedge out eastward; terrigenous clastics of the high-destructive deltas extend southward into Mexico. Hydrocarbons are produced from thin strike-oriented sands downdip from the belt of maximum sand thickness of the high-destructive deltas in South Texas; only a minor amount of oil and gas has been obtained from delta front and distributary channel sands of the high-constructive deltas in East Texas. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1898------------