For many years after the discovery of oil in the shoestring sands in southeastern Butler County, geologists were engaged in mapping the structure of the surface strata in this general region. The anticlinal theory applied to the accumulation of oil and gas was so thoroughly established by experience in so many oil and gas fields in the United States and foreign areas, that it was the natural procedure to apply that concept to the geologic work that was carried on here in conjunction with the prospecting and development of the oil and gas fields. But as drilling progressed and additional oil-bearing shoestring sands were found in Butler, Greenwood, and Cowley counties, it became apparent that the oil is not related to surface structural features. Oil was found in synclines or anticlines, on structural slopes between anticlinal and synclinal axes, and on structural terraces. Also, many of the promising looking domes and anticlines had no sand at the horizon of the shoestring sands and were barren of oil and gas in commercial amounts. The drilling revealed that the oil and gas sands are narrow, elongated, lenticular bodies that bear little or no relation to the structural features of the surface strata. A corollary of this discovery is that the oil operator must determine in advance of development the trend of the longer axis of the sand lens. However, a few geologists yet believe that the attitude of the surface rocks reflects to a degree the location of the shoestring sands that contain the oil. Some geologists (Gardescu and Johnson, 1921, p. 481-483; Monett, 1922, p. 194-200; Rubey, 1925, p. 74-75) have discussed the possibility of folds being caused by compaction of the sediments over lenses of sand. It has been pointed out that shale is much more compressible than sandstone and that the column of sediments including the sand, when subjected to the load of overlying sediments, would contract less than the columns of shale on either side of the sand body. In consequence of such differential compaction the rocks overlying the sand body would be deformed into a low-angle arch conforming in general to the upper surface of the sand body. The thick series of alternating limestone and shale strata that overlie the thick Cherokee shale containing the sand lenses is believed by some advocates of this theory to be capable of reflecting the arched figure with diminishing degree upward to the surface rocks.
In order to have at hand detailed information on the structural attitude of the surface strata overlying a few of the oil-producing sand bodies, a plane table survey was made of the geology of three of the shoestring sand oil fields in Greenwood County--namely, the Browning, Thrall, and Fankhouser fields. Reference to Plate 1 will show that one of these fields lies in each of the main shoestring sand trends and one field is in a cross trend. Fields were selected wherein the outcrops of readily identifiable strata are abundant, so that the structure contour maps that would result from the field surveys would be based on an abundance of data. Geologists familiar with the region suggested that, if elevation control points for structural mapping were more closely spaced than is commonly done in this type of geologic mapping, the data secured would furnish control for contouring with a smaller contour interval than is commonly used; that contours drawn at each 2 to 5 foot difference in elevation might reveal some structural features that would not be disclosed by contours spaced at 10-foot intervals. This suggestion was followed, and the resulting structural contour maps of two of the fields were drawn with a contour interval of 2 feet, and an interval of 5 feet was used on the map of the third field.
The Browning Oil Field
The Browning oil field, which occupies parts of secs. 17 to 20, and 29 to 31, T. 22 S., R. 10 E., in northwestern Greenwood County, is one of the shoestring sand oil fields that comprise the Teeter trend. It lies on the comparatively steep slopes that descend eastward from the crest of the Flint Hills, where the maximum relief of the surface is 350 feet in 1 1/2 miles. The exposed strata form a stratigraphic section 400 feet thick, extending from the Americus limestone member of the Foraker limestone at the base upward to the Florence flint. No less than 16 of the limestone units of the stratigraphic column crop out as prominent rock ledges, and others form ledges of local extent. These strata are described in the chapter on stratigraphy.
The structural attitude of the surface strata in the Browning oil field is shown on Plate 3 by contours drawn on the Morrill limestone. The map is the result of a detailed survey of the field with a plane table and telescopic alidade conducted by stadia rod traverses. Elevations above sea level (the datum elevation was furnished by Prairie Oil and Gas Co., adjusted approximately to sea-level datum) were determined for all points on outcropping beds shown on the map; these elevations on beds other than the Morrill limestone were adjusted to the Morrill datum by addition or subtraction of the vertical interval between the determined bed and the Morrill datum plane. After all stations were resolved to the single datum, points of equal elevations were connected by lines, known as structure contours; a contour was drawn for each difference of 2 feet in elevation.
Plate 3--Structure contour map of surface beds in the Browning oil field, Greenwood County, Kansas. Contours drawn on the Morrill limestone. Contour interval=2 feet. Elevations, in feet, above sea level. Classification after Moore et al., 1934.
The structure contour map (pl. 3) shows that the rocks dip regionally toward the west and northwest, and that the regional dip of the beds is interrupted locally by minor anticlines and synclines that trend in general northeast-southwest across the mapped area. A low syncline crosses the NW sec. 30, SE sec. 19, NW sec. 20, SE SW and SE sec. 17 into NW sec. 16. A low anticlinal nose crosses secs. 19, 20, and 17, trending in a direction approximately parallel with the syncline. A somewhat deeper syncline trends northeast-southwest across sec. 18, and an anticline that trends approximately parallel with it lies northwest of the syncline and a short distance outside the area on Plate 3.
The oil productive shoestring sand body that occurs at a depth of about 2,300 feet in the Browning field trends approximately north-south for about 2 miles through parts of secs. 29, 30, 20, 19, 17, and 18; its southernmost part appears to trend in a southwest direction across parts of secs. 30 and 31. The margin of the sand body lies a short distance beyond the edge oil wells; it lies between oil wells and dry holes in several localities in the field. If the presence of the sand body in the column of sediments has modified the attitude of the surface beds, even though to only a slight amount, the structure contours drawn at intervals of 2 feet and based on elevations determined at every few hundred feet along the outcrops of the strata, such as was done for Plate 3, should reveal the fact by deviations in strike or width of spacing of the contours where they cross over the position of the underlying sand lens. However, the map (pl. 3) shows that the structure contours are not deflected where they trend across the area underlain by the sand body, and that the minor structural features, such as the synclines and anticlines, likewise show no deviations from normality in crossing this area.
It is noteworthy that the presence of oil in the shoestring sand is not controlled by the shallow syncline and anticline that are revealed in the surface rocks in the northern part of the oil field. The oil producing area includes the syncline in secs. 19 and 20, the anticline in secs. 17, 18, 19, and 20, and the northwest and west-dipping monocline in secs. 20, 29, 30, and 31. Holes drilled outside the boundaries of the sand lens failed to find oil in commercial amounts, whether drilled on an anticline, a syncline, or a monocline--namely, the dry hole in the NE NW NW sec. 20; the dry hole in the southwest corner of the NE sec. 20; the dry hole in the E2 SW NE sec. 19. The logs of some of these wells reported sand, as shown on the block diagram (plate 13), but in most cases the sand was reported to be shaly and broken by shale streaks. Moreover, experience throughout this region indicates that it is a fair assumption that a well log that records thick sand in a dry hole near the edge of a shoestring sand oil pool probably is incorrectly logged, and that the material is actually very fine sandy shale, having such a low porosity that it is incapable of serving as an oil reservoir.
The Thrall Oil Field
The surface structure of the Thrall oil field, in Greenwood County, was studied because of abundant outcrops of readily mappable strata. The field is in the southwesternmost part of T. 23 S., R. 10, E., and extends southward into T. 24 S., R. 10 E.; it joins the Agard oil field on the southwest (see pl. 1) The oil-producing shoestring sand of the two fields appears to be a continuous body.
The rocks that are exposed in the Thrall oil field extend upward from the Americus limestone member of the Foraker limestone to the Morrill limestone member of the Beattie limestone. They are shown graphically in the columnar section on Plate 5.
Plate 5--Structure contour map of surface beds in the Thrall oil field, Greenwood County, Kansas. Contour interval=5 feet. Elevations, in feet, above sea level. Contours drawn on top of the Neva limestone. Outcrops shown by light lines which correspond to symbols shown in columnar section of rocks exposed. Classification after Moore et al., 1934.
The structure contour map shown on Plate 5 was prepared by methods similar to those used in the preparation of the map of the Browning oil field (pl. 3). The contour interval is 5 feet and the datum bed is the Neva limestone, a member of the Grenola limestone. The main structural features are a broad westward-trending anticlinal nose that occupies most of the oil field, a southeast-northwest trending syncline in the northeastern part of sec. 28, a syncline in sec. 5, and a structural terrace in parts of secs. 31 and 6. The trends of the synclines and anticlinal nose are northwest-southeast, which is approximately at right angles to the northeast-southwest trend of the oil productive shoestring sand body, which lies at a depth of about 2,250 feet. The contour lines show no irregularities in crossing the area underlain by the sand body, except in secs. 31 and 6, where the contours are deflected around a structural terrace that coincides approximately with the surface trace of the buried shoestring sand body.
The regional structure contour map (pl. 7) shows that the anticlinal nose and the synclines in secs. 28 and 5 are parts of an extensive structural pattern in the surface rocks of this part of the state. Maps prepared by petroleum geologists, not reproduced here, show that these main anticlines and synclines persist in the buried rocks that lie above, as well as those that lie below the shoestring sands. A sketch of the structure of the base of the oil-producing sand in the Thrall field, not reproduced, shows that in the main the attitude of the base of the sand is similar to that of the surface beds. The main anticlinal nose is present in the producing sand in the central part of the field and a terrace of only slightly different shape than that in the surface beds is present in the southwestern part of the field. These facts appear to leave little doubt that the forces that formed the structural features of the surface rocks also acted on the buried rocks and produced features in them similar to those shown in the surface beds, and that the buried shoestring sand body has not altered the structural features of the surface rocks. Therefore, the attitude of the surface beds does not reveal the presence of a buried sand lens in the locality of the Thrall oil field.
The Fankhouser Oil Field
The surface structure of the Fankhouser oil field in Lyon and Greenwood counties was mapped because of its abundance of rock outcrops. The field extends through parts of sec. 9, 10, 4, and 5, T. 22 S., R. 12 E., and secs. 32 and 33, T. 21 S., R. 12 E. Plate 6 is a map of the area covered by the detailed plane table survey.
Plate 6--Structure contour map of surface beds in the Fankhouser oil field, Lyon and Greenwood counties, Kansas. Contours drawn on Burlingame limestone. Contour interval=2 feet. Elevations, in feet, above sea level.
The rocks that are exposed in the Fankhouser oil field include the Burlingame limestone and beds above and below it in the Wabaunsee group of the Pennsylvanian system. They are shown graphically in a columnar section on Plate 6.
The structural attitude of the surface rocks in the Fankhouser oil field is shown on Plate 6 by structure contours drawn on the Burlingame limestone. The map is the result of a plane table survey. Many control points were determined so that contours with a 2-foot interval could be drawn. The chief feature shown by the map is a broad anticlinal nose whose axis trends northwest, diagonally across the trend of the oil field. The oil-producing sand in the Fankhouser field is a lens-shaped sand body less than a mile wide and about 3 miles long, lying in the Cherokee shale. Its boundaries are a short distance outside the oil wells shown on the map. The trend of the anticlinal nose shown on Plate 6 coincides with the trend of the buried sand body through a part of the oil field, a fact that may suggest to some that the flexure in the surface rocks was produced by arching of the beds over the sand lens. If the flexure was caused in this manner, it should directly overlie the sand body instead of trending diagonally across it as it does. Moreover, the anticlinal nose appears to be a part of a general system of folds in this part of Greenwood and Lyon counties and it extends southeastward beyond the area occupied by the sand lens. The position of the anticlinal nose over the oil productive sand body through a part of the Fankhouser field is believed to be accidental and to bear no relation to the presence of the shoestring sand.
Structure of the Surface Rocks in the Greenwood-Butler County Region
Plate 7 is a mosaic of structure contour maps of the Greenwood-Butler County region that contains the shoestring sand oil fields; it was compiled from many maps, each of which covered a small area. The contours are drawn on key beds ranging upward from about the Oread limestone to beds in the Chase group-that is, different beds were contoured in different areas. The vertical interval between contours is 10 feet. The contours are broken and offset in numerous parts of the map where two or more maps of local areas were joined, and little attempt was made to smooth out the contours at the junctions of the small maps. Because elevation figures are omitted from the contours, arrows were added to Plate 7 to show the direction of dips.
If the reader will imagine that the contours of the entire region are adjusted to one datum, the structural picture represented is that of a monocline that dips essentially westward in the south half of the area and slightly north of west in the north half. The monocline has superposed on it numerous anticlines, anticlinal noses, synclines, structural basins and terraces, the most prominent of which is the Beamount anticline that extends from the southwestern part of T. 29 S., R. 8 E., slightly east of north to sec. 32, T. 26 S., R. 9 E., thence northeast toward Eureka. The Virgil anticline that is largely in T. 24 S., R. 12 E., the anticline in T. 23 S., R. 13 E., and that in T. 24 S., Rs. 13 and 14 E., and T. 23 S., R. 14 E., and the anticline that lies close to the range line between T. 22 S., R. 12 E., and T. 22 S., R. 13 E., are other prominent folds.
The purpose of the map is not simply to show the structural features of the region, but is mainly to show the relation of surface structure to the buried shoestring sand bodies. Many pronounced structural features, including anticlines, domes, synclines, terraces, and basins, cross the Lamont and Quincy sand trends at approximately right angles, and others cross the Teeter and Sallyards trends. Prominent examples are (1) the anticlines whose axes trend northeast, respectively, through sec. 23, T. 24 S., R. 12 E., sec. 27, T. 23 S., R. 13 E., sec. 30, T. 22 S., R. 13 E., (2) the anticline whose axis trends northwest through sec. 29, and the basin whose axis trends northwest through sec. 24, T. 23 S., R. 10 E., (3) the anticline that trends northwest through secs. 15 and 16, T. 23 S., R. 9 E., and (4) the syncline 1 1/2 miles northeast of it.
In only a few localities the shapes of local surface structural features appear to conform to the outline of a buried sand lens. The most striking is perhaps the anticlinal nose, in secs. 9, 5, and 6, T. 25 S., R. 13 E., sec. 31, T. 24 S., R. 13 E., and sec. 36, T. 24 S., R. 12 E., that closely follows the Quincy trend of sand. An anticlinal nose coincides essentially with the location of the sand body of the Madison oil field in T. 22 S., R. 11 E., and synclinal noses that flank each end of the Madison oil field show a rather close conformation of the structural features over the sand lens. Other similar cases can be found. However, the surface structural features appear to lack any suggestion of conformation with the shape of the buried sand bodies throughout so large a part of the area that the few exceptions wherein structural features do follow sand trends are believed to be the result of chance. It is therefore concluded that the buried shoestring sand bodies are not reflected in the attitude of the surface rocks.
Plate 7--Assembled structure contour maps of surface beds in the Greenwood-Butler county region.
Not yet available.
The discovery of shoestring oil pools in the southern part of Butler County followed closely the rapid development of the El Dorado oil and gas field in which the first oil well was completed in October 1915. Oil was found in 1917 (Northrop, 1920, p. 769) in sec. 26, T. 26 S., R. 5 E., and in sec. 2, T. 27 S., R. 5 E., in what later became known as the Smock-Sluss oil field, shown on Plate 1. A well drilled in 1917 in sec. 1, T. 28 S., R. 5 E., discovered the Weaver pool; wells with small production were drilled in secs. 13 and 24, T. 29 S., R. 5 E., in 1917, in what was later destined to be the large Fox-Bush oil field. Each of these wells found oil in a shoestring sand body. Drilling in 1917 in sec. 2, T. 26 S., R. 8 E., Greenwood County, discovered the Sallyards oil field.
Development of the shoestring sand pools continued in Butler County in 1918, but drilling in that year in Greenwood County proved disappointing. Lloyd (1918, p. 1060) states that Greenwood County was thoroughly prospected in 1918, but "proved very spotted and discouraging"; out of 186 wells drilled, 80 (43 percent) were dry holes. According to Berger (1921, p. 276), by late 1921 the Sallyards oil field covered an area about 6 miles long extending from sec. 25, T. 25 S., R. 8 E., to sec. 20, T. 26 S., R. 8 E. This district is now commonly divided into the Blankenship and Sallyards fields (pl. 1).
Other fields were opened in rapid succession, the Teeter and Agard fields in 1921, and the Seeley, Burkett, and Browning (Loomis, 1923, p. 482) fields in 1922. The area between the Blankenship oil field on the southwest and the newly discovered Madison pool on the northeast witnessed the most active (Sands, 1923, p. 65) drilling campaign in Kansas in 1923. By the end of the year the Polhamus, Thrall, Burkett, Seeley, Wick and Madison oil fields were being developed. Because the oil fields formed an area many miles long, but only a mile or less wide, and because of the richness of the productive area, it became known as the Golden Lane.
The Harris oil pool in secs. 18 and 19, T. 22 S., R. 11 E., was discovered early in 1923. A well in the southwest corner SE SE sec. 24, T. 24 S., R. 9 E., was reported (Oil Weekly, April 7, 1923) in April 1923, producing oil from shoestring sand. Later, additional holes were drilled nearby and failed to find sand of appreciable thickness and were dry holes. An oil well with only 15 barrels a day production was drilled in by Joe Nathan on the Halverson farm in the center of the NE NE NW sec. 26, T. 24 S., R. 9 E., in early June 1923 (Oil Weekly, June 9, 1923). Later in 1923, however, the Agard oil pool was discovered by Bason et al., No. 1 Agard, drilled in the northwest corner SE sec. 14, T. 24 S., R. 9 E. Press reports (Oil and Gas Journal, January 3, 1924, p. 54) in January 1924, state that the well was then producing 400 barrels of oil a day from sand at 2,134 to 2,169 feet. Extension of the Agard pool rapidly followed its discovery. This district was the most actively developed area in Greenwood County in 1924 (Carpenter, 1924, p. 154-155).
In 1924 the Browning oil pool in T. 22 S., R. 10 E., was discovered and oil was found in sec. 2, T. 23 S., R. 9 E., northeast of the then Teeter pool; the operators were quick to discern that a trend of oil sand parallel with the Blankenship-Sallyards Burkett-Madison trend was developing in the Teeter-Browning district and it became known locally as the Little Golden Lane. The Teeter oil pool was extended northeast to the NW sec. 15, T. 23 S., R. 9 E., but there was yet a large gap between this locality and the new well in sec. 2 of the same township. The De Malorie-Souder pool in T. 22 S., R. 10 E., was opened early in 1924, and was developed rapidly in 1925.
The Atyeo oil field in T. 21 S., R. 10 E., the Scott field in T. 23 S., Rs. 8 and 9 E., and the Pixlee field in T. 22 S., R. 10 E., were opened in 1925. In 1926 the Fankhouser oil field in the extreme northern part of Greenwood County and the Keighley and Seward fields in the eastern part of Butler County were discovered. The Kramer field in T. 28 S., R. 6 E., which derives part of its oil from shoestring (Ley, 1926, p. 639) sand, was opened in 1926. Many of the shoestring oil pools in northwestern Greenwood County were extended in 1926. According to Ley, development had definitely established by 1926, or earlier, the existence of two parallel main trends and two cross trends of productive shoestring sand bodies. It was in 1926 that 10 or more dry holes were drilled in northeastern Butler County in search of the southwest extension of the Teeter trend (Little Golden Lane); several of the wells found the sand but it contained water. The southern part of Lyon County was actively prospected in 1926 with disappointing results.
The year 1927 witnessed the discovery of the Lamont oil field (Kesler, 1928, p. 17-21) in T. 22 S., Rs. 12 and 13 E., the Quincy oil and gas field in secs. 10 and 15, T. 25 S., R. 13 E., and the Haverhill oil field in T. 27 S., R. 5 E. Kesler states that Greenwood County shoestring sand pools produced nearly 28 percent of the total oil production of the state in 1927.
Development was extended in 1928 in the district near Quincy in T. 24 S., R. 13 E., and the Patterson field (later known as Hamilton) in sec. 36, T. 23 S., R. 11 E., and sec. 1, T. 24 S., R. 11 E., was (Straub and Folger 1930, p. 443) opened and developed in 1928 and 1929. The Garden oil field in secs. 5 and 6, T. 27 S., R. 6 E., was opened in March 1928 (Straub and Folger, 1930, p. 444). The Norton pool in secs. 15 and 22, T. 22 S., R. 12 E., was discovered in April 1929.
During the past few years several small pools have been found in the Quincy trend, and oil and gas production has been extended southeastward along the trend in the extreme eastern part of Greenwood County and the westernmost part of Woodson County.
None of the oil fields in the region has been exhausted as yet; estimates indicate that some will ultimately attain a recovery of 7,000 to 10,000 barrels of oil per acre. Berry (1934, letter of January 16) has estimated an ultimate recovery of 7,000 barrels of oil per acre in the Hamilton and the Edwards Extension fields; 8,000 barrels in the Teeter field, and 9,000 to 10,000 barrels in the Browning field. In 1930, Straub and Folger (1930, p. 443-444) estimated the ultimate recovery of the Lamont field as 7,000 barrels of oil per acre, the Haverhill field in southern Butler County as 4,000 barrels of oil per acre, and the Garden field in secs. 5 and 6, T. 27 S., R. 6 E., as 7,000 barrels of oil per acre.
Recently Hutchinson (1936, p. 33) has stated that although some leases will yield in excess of 10,000 barrels of oil per acre that the yield of others will not exceed 2,500 barrels per acre. It is his belief that an average of not more than 6,000 barrels of oil per acre is a fair estimate of the ultimate recovery for the 30,000 acres of shoestring sand fields in Butler and Greenwood counties.
The attention of the oil industry was attracted to southeastern Butler County and western Greenwood County a short time prior to 1921, because the sands were found at moderate drilling depths, contained oil ranging between 39° and 42°, A.P.I. and yielded wells that produced more than 1,000 barrels of oil a day. Through the expensive method of drilling wells, a fairly large percentage of which yielded no oil and found no sand at the horizon of the oil-producing beds of the neighboring wells, it was found that the sand occurs in narrow, elongated lenses half a mile to 1 1/2 miles wide but many times longer than they are wide, and that the separate bodies within a trend have an offset arrangement.
After development had extended over several years in Greenwood and eastern Butler counties, it was learned that the sand lenses are arranged mainly in four systems, locally called trends and cross trends, and that the sand bodies in south-central Butler County and north-central Cowley County constitute a fifth trend that is believed by some to be a part of one of the four. The present known distribution of the sand lenses that occur at the same general horizon in the lower part of the Cherokee shale in Butler, Greenwood and Cowley counties is shown on Plate 1. Two shoestring systems run in a northeasterly direction and are known locally as the main trends, and two run in a southeasterly direction and are known as cross trends. One trend has a northerly course through northern Cowley and southern Butler counties. For clarity in referring to these several systems in this report, they are designated by names selected arbitrarily from oil field names in the trend referred to; in each case the oil field name is also the name of a post office.
The Sallyards Trend
The longest trend extends from the Keighley oil pool in T. 27 S., R. 7 E., Butler County, northeastward through the Seward, Lucas, Blankenship, Sallyards, Polhamus, Agard, Thrall, Burkett, Wick and Madison oil pools. The logs of a few dry holes drilled farther northeast in Lyon County record sand carrying water at the general horizon of the sand of the oil pools, and many geologists believe that the sand in these wells represents a northeastward continuation of the sand lenses of the Sallyards trend. These Lyon County wells are, however, several miles apart and in several instances are as much as 3 miles apart; consequently, with such widely separated bits of information, no conclusion seems possible concerning the lateral extent and shape of the sand body or bodies that have been penetrated by the drill in these northern localities.
The Teeter Trend
A second sand trend lying about 6 miles northwest of, but roughly parallel to the Sallyards trend, extends from the Scott oil pool in the southeastern part of T. 23 S., R. 8 E., to the Theta pool in the northwestern part of T. 22 S., R. 10 E. It is herein called the Teeter trend. Oil-producing sand extends from the northeast end of the Teeter trend northwestward into Lyon County as far as sec. 19, T. 21 S., R. 10 E. The area is known as the Pixlee and Atyeo oil fields, and is not included as part of the Teeter trend. Several wells north of the Atyeo field recorded sand at the shoestring sand horizon, but with the exception of one well in sec. 29, T. 20 S., R. 10 E., which yielded a small amount of oil, the sand contained water instead of oil.
The Quincy and Lamont Trends
Two systems of sand lenses, locally referred to as cross trends, traverse the northeastern part of Greenwood County in a northwesterly direction. One, which is referred to herein as the Quincy trend, begins in sec. 19, T. 25 S., R. 14 E., and probably even farther southeast, and runs in a northwesterly direction through the Quincy, Christy, Landon, Hamilton, Edwards Extension, Seeley, Harris and DeMalorie-Souder oil pools to sec. 10, T. 22 S., R. 10 E. This trend crosses the Sallyards trend in the Seeley field in T. 23 S., R. 11 E. The sand bodies in the southeastern two thirds of the Quincy trend are smaller and less continuous than those of the other trends just described.
The Lamont trend, about 8 miles northeast of the Quincy trend, includes the Shambaugh, Lamont, Norton, and Fankhouser oil fields and may include also the central part of the Stephenson oil field in sec. 12, T. 24 S., R. 13 E., and sec. 7, T. 24 S., R. 14 E.
The Haverhill Trend
The Haverhill trend which, except for parts of the Haverhill oil field, was not studied in detail for this report, extends from sec. 31, T. 31 S., R. 6 E., in a general northerly direction through the Burden and Eastman oil pools in Cowley County and the Fox-Bush, Haverhill and Smock-Sluss oil fields in Butler County, into the northwestern part of T. 26 S., R. 6 E.
Other Shoestring Sand Lenses
Other extensive oil-producing shoestring sand lenses occur in Butler and Cowley counties, but were not studied in detail. The Garden oil pool in secs. 5 and 6, and the Leon oil pool in secs. 19 and 20, T. 27 S., R. 6 E., and the Weaver oil pool in sec. 36, T. 27 S., R. 5 E., and sec. 1, T. 28 S., R. 5 E., are also shoestring sand oil pools. A part of the oil production in the Winfield and State oil fields in T. 32 S., Rs. 4 and 5 E., Cowley County, and the oil in the Rainbow Bend oil field in T. 33 S., R. 3 E., and the Baird oil field in T. 34 S., R. 3 E., is from shoestring sand lenses in the lower part of the Cherokee shale, which are believed to occur at the same general stratigraphic horizon as the shoestring sand lenses in Butler and Greenwood counties.
The En Echelon Arrangement of the Shoestring Oil Fields and Sand Bodies
Though the individual shoestring sand bodies are aligned in definite trends in the region, the Sallyards trend takes more nearly a straight-line course than the other trends; it deviates from a straight line only in the Agard field, where it makes a broad curve to the west. The Teeter trend has a nearly straight-line course, except near the northeastern end where the Browning sand lens and the Theta lens deviate from the prevailing course of the trend. The Quincy trend leaves a straight-line course only by broad sweeping curves and by one abrupt offset between the sand bodies of the Edwards Extension and Hamilton fields in the southeastern part of T. 23 S., R. 11 E. In contrast to the close approach to straight-line courses shown by these trends, the Lamont trend has a very irregular course. The trend of the southern part of the sand body of the Shambaugh field has a slightly west of north direction, but parts of the sand lens of the Lamont field trend only slightly north of west and the course of the sand lens of the Fankhouser field swings to west of north.
The individual sand bodies in all trends, except the southeastern part of the Quincy trend, are several times longer than wide, and they are of somewhat the same dimensions. Much of the Quincy trend is composed of small sand lenses, many of which are elongated in the direction of the regional trend, but others are circular or elliptical and appear to be arranged haphazardly as to detail, but lie within the regional trend.
If lines are drawn lengthwise through the middle of each oil field (pl. 1), the projections of the lines will show an interesting relationship. In the Teeter trend a southwestward projection of the axial line of the Browning oil field falls southeast of the Teeter oil field; a southwestward projection of the axial line of the Teeter field in turn lies southeast of the Scott field. In the Sallyards trend a prolongation of the axial line of the Madison field coincides approximately with the axial line of the Wick field, and falls southeast of the axial line of the Burkett field. The median line of the Burkett field passes east of the Thrall field, and this relation of the offsetting of the axial lines holds for the Agard, Polhamus, Sallyards, Blankenship, and Keighley fields.
A similar offsetting of the axial lines can be seen in a few of the fields that comprise the Quincy and Lamont trends, but it is not so evident as it is in the Teeter and Sallyards trends. In the Quincy trend the northwestward prolongation of the axis of the Seeley field falls southwest of the DeMalorie-Souder field; an extension of the Seeley-Edwards Extension axis southeastward falls southwest of the Hamilton field; and an extension of the combined Hamilton and Landon fields' median line falls southwest of the trend of the Quincy pools. The oil fields farther southeast in this trend are small and irregularly spaced and they do not appear to have this prevailing offset arrangement. In the Lamont trend the extension northwestward of the axis of the Lamont and Norton fields falls southwest of the Fankhouser field. The relation between the Lamont and Shambaugh fields is vague because their extremities, as defined to date, are separated by so great a distance that the projection of the median line of either field becomes uncertain. However, a projection northwestward of the median line of the Shambaugh field, as developed to date, falls to the southwest of the Lamont field and so indicates that its trend is offset from the trend of the Lamont field in the same direction as the offset between the Lamont and Fankhouser fields. The extension southward of the axis of the Shambaugh field falls west of the small shoestring sand part of the Stephenson field in sec. 12, T. 24 S., R. 13 E., and sec. 7, T. 24 S., R. 14 E., which may be a part of the Lamont trend, indicating an offset in an opposite direction from that of the other fields in the Lamont trend.
Inasmuch as the boundaries of the oil fields coincide essentially with the boundaries of the oil-producing sand bodies, the axial lines of the oil fields constitute axial lines of the sand bodies, also. The echelon arrangement of the sand bodies within the shoestring trends is believed to be significant in indicating the mode of origin of the sand and is discussed later in the section on "The Distribution of the Sand Lenses" under "Filled Stream Channels or Offshore Bars."
Stratigraphic Cross Sections Between the Shoestring Sand Trends
Well records in northern Greenwood County and in southeastern Butler County were studied for the purpose of ascertaining whether the sand bodies of the several shoestring trends occur at the same or at different stratigraphic horizons. Although many wells in the region penetrated the upper part of the "Mississippi lime," which lies 50 to 150 feet below the shoestring sand bodies, the study was based largely on the stratigraphic section extending upward from the shoestring sand horizon. The Cherokee shale below the shoestring sand horizon is irregular in thickness locally, because of the irregularities on the old erosion surface on the "Mississippi lime" on which it lies.
Numerous cross sections were made between the Sallyards and Teeter trends and the Quincy and Lamont trends. Because greater confidence apparently can be placed in the results of the correlations between trends that are separated by the shortest possible distance, particular attention has been given the area between the Thrall oil field in the southwestern part of T. 23 S., R. 10 E., and the Teeter oil field in the central part of T. 23 S., R. 9 E. In this locality the two main shoestring sand trends are only about 4 miles apart. The results from this study of well logs were inconclusive, however; the stratigraphic position of the sand in wells in the Teeter field corresponds so nearly to the position of the sand in the wells of the Thrall field that differences of position as recorded in the well logs are as great between nearby wells in the same oil field as between wells in different fields. Furthermore, regional studies of the thickness of the Cherokee shale, shown on Plate 1, indicate that there is an increase of about 25 feet in thickness of the Cherokee from west to east across this part of Greenwood County. On the basis of several of the cross sections studied, one might conclude that the shoestring sand in the Thrall field was very slightly lower stratigraphically than the sand in the Teeter field, but if the divergence of the Cherokee shale is assumed to have been accomplished largely in the beds above the bases of the sand lenses, the conclusion that both sand bodies were deposited simultaneously on a surface that sloped eastward at about 6 feet a mile, is more reasonable. Even more confusing was the fact that some of the cross sections indicated that the sand of the Teeter field is stratigraphically lower than the sand of the Thrall field. Similarly conflicting data were procured from cross sections made between the Burkett and Browning fields, and between that part of the Lamont trend that includes the Lamont and Shambaugh fields and the fields in the southeastern part of the Quincy trend.
These studies indicated that the shoestring sands of the several trends were deposited at about the same time, but that the data are not sufficiently detailed to indicate small differences in stratigraphic positions or in age of the sand of the several trends.
In the area that includes the junction of the Sallyards and Quincy trends, however, wells that have penetrated the sand lenses of the Wick and Burkett fields of the Sallyards trend are but a short distance removed from wells in the Seeley field of the Quincy trend; in fact, the distance between the boundaries of the Wick and Seeley fields is but twice the distance between offset wells. Many cross sections based on the correlation of well logs were made between the Wick and Seeley fields, and a few were made between the Seeley and Burkett fields. A cross section along the north line of the S2 sec. 32 and the north line of the S2 sec. 33, T. 22 S., R. 11 E., in the Wick and Seeley fields, is shown on Plate 8. This cross section shows that the base of the sand lens of the Seeley field is 35 to 50 feet stratigraphically lower than the base of the sand in the Wick field. Other cross sections, not reproduced here, show that the sands of the Wick and Burkett fields are at the same stratigraphic horizon. It is concluded that the main sand body of the Seeley field is older than that of the Wick and Burkett fields.
Plate 8--Cross sections in the Wick and Seeley oil fields, Greenwood County. An Acrobat PDF version of this image is available.
Throughout most of the Wick field the sand is less than 50 feet thick and is commonly divided into two members by a thick bed of shale, but the sand is greater than 50 feet thick throughout most of the Seeley field. The sand ranges between 60 and 80 feet thick in a small part of the Seeley field that lies in the general trend of the Burkett and Wick fields. It appears probable that the upper part of the Seeley sand was deposited in part at the same time as that of the Wick and Burkett sand bodies. Much of the blunt prong of sand which extends into the NE sec. 7, T. 23 S., R. 11 E., on the southwestern margin of the sand body of the Seeley field, and is shown by the distribution of the oil wells on Plate 1, may have originated at this later stage.
Kansas Geological Survey, Geology
Placed on web May 3, 2011; originally published Sept. 1936.
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