LI, RONG, and JOEL S. WATKINS, Texas A&M Univ., Department of Geophysics, College Station, TX

ABSTRACT: Plio-Pleistocene Structural Features and Implications of Basement Architecture of West Offshore Louisiana Continental Shelf, Gulf of Mexico

Over 5,000 line miles of seismic data have been interpretated from the region covering an area of portion of West Cameron, East Cameron, Vermilion and South Marsh Island areas and their south addition OCS areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Analysis of these data reveals that basement architecture could be a triggering mechanism for the distribution of structural elements in younger sedimentary series on offshore Louisiana continental shelf.

The Sabine Transfer Fault extends from below the eastern Sigsbee Bulge in western Walker Ridge OCS area to just west of Sabine Pass and onshore across East Texas. This transfer fault separates the study area into two structural regions with the rotated fault blocks occupy to the west, and the half graben located to the east.

Plio-Pleistocene paleohorizons and isochron maps indicate three major fault trends within the West and East Cameron areas. Two of these fault trends are located on the south flank of the High Island Ridge. The third trend is located near to the modern shelf break. Sediment at downthrown of the growth fault are highly rotated. In Vermilion and South Marsh Island south addition areas, the sediments have a maximum accumulation through Plio-Pleistocene.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90987©1993 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-28, 1993.