A.H. Scheirer | USGS Science

USGS2005

USGS assessment of oil and gas resource potential of the San Joaquin Basin, California

The assessment of oil and gas resource potential of the San Joaquin Basin, California, by the U.S. Geological Survey, is discussed. Two categories of future additions to reserves were evaluated, first was resource in undiscovered accumulations and second was growth of reserves in already discovered accumulations. The mean estimate of undiscovered oil resources is 393 barrels. The greatest potential for oil accumulations larger than 10 million barrels is probably in Miocene and Eocene reservoirs of the westside of the basin and in deep basin south of the Bakersfield Arch.

Conference Paper↗

USGS2003

Mechanism for generating the anomalous uplift of oceanic core complexes: Atlantis Bank, southwest Indian Ridge

Atlantis Bank is an anomalously uplifted oceanic core complex adjacent to the Atlantis II transform, on the southwest Indian Ridge, that rises >3 km above normal seafloor of the same age. Models of flexural uplift due to detachment faulting can account for ???1 km of this uplift. Postdetachment normal faults have been observed during submersible dives and on swath bathymetry. Two transform-parallel, large-offset (hundreds of meters) normal faults are identified on the eastern flank of Atlantis Bank, with numerous smaller faults (tens of meters) on the western flank. Flexural uplift associated with this transform-parallel normal faulting is consistent with gravity data and can account for the remaining anomalous uplift of Atlantis Bank. Extension normal to the Atlantis II transform may have occurred during a 12 m.y. period of transtension initiated by a 10?? change in spreading direction ca. 19.5 Ma. This extension may have produced the 120-km-long transverse ridge of which Atlantis Bank is a part, and is consistent with stress reorientation about a weak transform fault.

Geology↗