Principles And Problems Of Oil Prospecting In The Gulf Coast Country? Discussion

Discussion of the paper of W. G. MATTESON, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1918, and printed in Bulletin No. 134, February, 1915, pp. 429 to 468. WILLIAM KENNEDY, Fort Worth, Tex. (written discussion*). -In his discussion of this paper, Mr. Sherburne Rogers offers voluminous figures to show that the salt forming the. cores of the various domes could not have been derived from sea water, and gives as an illustration the immense quantity of water required to form the salt found in the Humble dome. He refers to the theory advanced by Van der Gracht apparently in support of this contention, and claims to have disposed of the views held by some that the domes were, in a great measure, formed by lateral secretion. Van der Gracht says the immense salt plugs found throughout North Germany and other countries in that region were apparently formed by orogenic movements acting upon what he calls the Mother Bed of Salt, which he gives a thickness of about 1000 ft., and an extent of several thousand square miles. The age of this "mother bed" is given as Permian. Harris, in addition to his growing-crystal theory, also says probably a great portion of the salt found in the Coastal dories may have been derived from the salt water of Permian time. Both of these theories require an abundance of water, and consequently oppose Mr. Rogers' idea that the immensity of water required disproves the formation of the salt from that source. I do not suppose, however, that either Van der Gracht or Harris absolutely limits his view to the Permian as being the only source from which the salt could have come, but would probably agree to consider any other age as being the beginning. Although the Permian is very strongly represented throughout North Texas, we have none anywhere throughout the region from which the salt may be considered as having been derived. Many deep wells have been drilled along the eastern outcropping of the Carboniferous and each has passed directly from Cretaceous to Carboniferous formations. Thus we may eliminate the Permian as a source of salt in this region. But, although the Permian may be absent, we have with us the Carboniferous with probably a thickness of 3000 to 4000 ft., and something like 3000 ft. of Cretaceous, to say nothing of approximately 8000 ft. of Tertiary and later beds, all of which, if we may judge by the quantity and density of the waters obtained from the numerous wells drilled, carry immense quantities