Deepwater Jackfork Field Course (Arkansas – Oklahoma)

Disciplines
Geoscience
Category
Subsurface • Foundational • Deepwater • Conventional Reservoir • Exploration • Development • Reservoir Characterization
Format
Field Course 
Available
Public • Private 

Who Should Attend

Exploration and development geologists, engineers, geophysicists and managers desiring hands-on experience in recognition of deepwater reservoirs, and who want to learn frameworks and methodologies for exploring for, and managing these reservoirs in the subsurface, as well as modelers who want to compare and contrast different architectures in different types of deepwater basins.

Description

This field course examines the various submarine gravity deposits (deepwater valleys/canyons, channels, channelized and non-channelized lobes, mass failures, injectites, etc.) in an up-dip to down-dip depositional profile of Jackfork Group (Pennsylvanian) strata across the Morrowan Ouachita Basin of Arkansas. The five-day trip visits outcrops of submarine slope canyon fill, submarine slope and basin channel fill, basin floor sheet sandstones and rare leveed-channel complexes. Outcrops are seen in remarkable dam and quarry exposures. In one area, a 3-D geologic model has been completed and this outcrop has undergone reservoir simulation using the Eclipse™ modeling software. At each outcrop, measured stratigraphic sections, outcrop gamma ray logs and (in some cases) ground-penetrating radar examples are provided, which tie outcrop observations to analog subsurface reservoir features. Unique depositional features and inferred processes are discussed. The Jackfork Group is widely considered to be an outcrop analog to many deepwater (turbidite) reservoirs worldwide. We will show some direct scaling to the Wilcox of the Gulf of Mexico.

Learning Outcomes

Course Content

  • Examination and discussion of various rock types of Pennsylvanian Jackfork Group
  • Up-dip canyon fill, Big Rock Quarry, Arkansas
  • Slope channel-fill, Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Arkansas
  • Sheet- and channel-fill sandstones and leveed channel facies in various outcrops and quarries, DeGray Lake State
  • Park/Hollywood area, Arkansas 3-D geologic model for simulation
  • Channel-fill sandstones, Murfreesboro, Arkansas
  • Sheet and channel-fill sandstones, eastern Oklahoma as related to the Jackfork gas play
  • Origin of anomalous porous and permeable zones

Instructor
Lesli J. Wood, PhD
Venue
Little Rock - Little Rock
Cost
$5,850.00
Date(s)
October 20-23, 2025