Calculation of the Cap from Torsion Balance Data, Hoskins Mound Salt Dome, Brazoria County, Texas

THE purpose of this torsion balance survey and the quantitative calculations was to delimit the extension of the cap rock at the Hoskins Mound salt dome. The sulfur ore in the Gulf Coast sulfur-bearing salt domes occurs in the lime rock, which is the outer layer of the cap-rock mass, and also in the underlying gypsum zone. The status of the exploration and exploitation of the Hoskins Mound dome at the date of this survey is shown by Fig. 1. The mound had been covered by the very early prospect wells of the Mound Oil Co., and the later and more numerous prospect wells of The Texas Company. The Freeport Sulphur Co. was producing from the flank wells in the southwest quadrant. The limits of the cap were surmised to lie inside the centers of quad-rangles 4F, 3F, the center of the NE. ¼ of 2E, and the north line of 2D. That surmise was based partly on the data of Fig. 1 and partly on the position of the edge of the topographic mound. The management of the Freeport Sulphur Co. wished to block out the extent of its ore reserves with a minimum of expenditure. The management was informed by the writer that no geophysical method could map the presence or quantity of sulfur directly, or determine the presence and quantity of the lime-rock cap independently of the rest of the cap, but that a reasonable probability existed that the approximate position of the edge, the depth and the thickness of the cap-rock mass as a whole could be determined through quantitative calculations based on the data of a very careful torsion balance survey. Considerable lime rock would probably be present, of course, wherever much cap rock was present. This paper presents the data of the survey, our calculated prediction of the configuration of the cap rock, and the degree of confirmation by the subsequent drilling. The survey was made by the Geophysical Research Corporation, under the direction of the writer. The work of the calculations was done by Andrew Gilmour, then assistant to the writer.