| dc.description.abstract | The Shattuck Sandstone Member of the Guadalupian age Queen Formation was deposited in back-reef environments on a carbonate platform of the Northwest Shelf (Permian Basin, New Mexico, USA) during a lowstand of sea level. At Mesa Queen Field, the Shattuck Sandstone is a sheet-like sand body that averages 30 ft (9.1 m) in thickness. The Shattuck Sandstone includes deposits of four major siliciclastic environments: (1) fluvial sandflats, (2) eolian sand sheets, (3) inland sabkhas, and (4) marine-reworked eolian sands. Fluvial sandflat deposits are further subdivided into sheetflood, wadi plain, and river-mouth deposits. Dolomites, evaporites, and siliciclastics that formed in adjacent coastal sabkha and lagoonal environments bound the Shattuck Sandstone from above and below.
The Shattuck Sandstone is moderately- to well-sorted, very fine-grained subarkose, with a mean grain size of 98 μm (3.55φ). Eolian sand sheet, wadi plain, and marine-reworked eolian facies comprise the productive reservoir intervals. Reservoir quality reflects intragranular and intergranular secondary porosity formed by partial dissolution of labile feldspar grains, and pore-filling anhydrite and dolomite cements.
Vertical successions and regional facies patterns support previous interpretations that these deposits formed during a sea-level lowstand and early stages of the subsequent transgression. Facies patterns across the shelf indicate fluvial sandflats prograded over coastal and continental sabkhas, and eolian sand deposition became more common during sea-level fall and lowstand. During subsequent transgression, eolian sediments in the upper portion of the Shattuck Sandstone were reworked as coastal and lagoon environments became reestablished on the inner carbonate platform. | en |
