Geologic Setting

Mississippian fields are located on the upper shelf of the Hugoton Embayment of the Anadarko Basin. The fields are situated on the southern and southwest flank of the Central Kansas Uplift, a structural high during Mississippian time that was accentuated in post-Mississippian time. Mississippian units get progressively older as strata are traced onto the Central Kansas Uplift. Strata in the fields represent shelf carbonates deposited on a gentle south-southwest sloping ramp. A transition from shelf carbonates to basin facies in Osagean strata occurs along the southern flank. Post-depositional regional uplift, subaerial exposure and differential erosion of the ramp strata at the pre-Pennsylvanian unconformity resulted in paleotopographic highs (buried hills). These structural highs have been the targets of exploration and production efforts. The majority of Mississippian production in Kansas occurs at or near the top of the Mississippian section just below the sub-Pennsylvanian unconformity. Field locations can also be correlated in some areas with basement lineaments.

Paleogeographic map during Osagean for portions of the Kansas shelf ( after Lane and De Keyser, 1980).