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Stratigraphic imaging of the Navajo Sandstone using ground-penetrating radar

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Charlie S. Bristow

Birkbeck College, University of London

Derald G. Smith and M. Brian Junck

University of Calgary

Peter Putnam

Petrel Robertson Ltd.

Corresponding author: jolhm@uwec.edu

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

The geomorphic and stratigraphic variety within and among modern and ancient aeolian (wind blown) dune fields is an immense topic of research. Aeolian deposits form important petroleum reservoirs; examples include the large gas-bearing sandstones of the Permian Rotliengendes Formation beneath the North Sea, the Pennsylvanian-Permian Weber and Jurassic Nugget oil reservoirs of the overthrust belts of Colorado and Wyoming, respectively, and the oil-bearing Minnelusa Formation (Permian) reservoirs located in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.

Internal structures of aeolian dunes are often inferred from shallow trenches, natural scours, outcrops, core samples, and models based on dune geometry and sedimentary processes. Because outcrops are limited, and deep trenches are unstable and destructive, there is some difficulty in directly observing the internal stratigraphy of aeolian landforms—particularly large complex and compound dune bedforms with superimposed dunes and multiple reactivation surfaces. The high resistivity of aeolian sand deposits, and the large size of aeolian sets of cross-stratification, provides a unique opportunity for ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to reveal the structure and stratigraphy of dune sands and sandstones (Bristow et al., 1996; Clemmensen, 1996; Harari, 1996; Bristow et al., 2000).

In this study, our objective is to present and interpret results from a GPR experiment that was conducted to image the internal stratification of the Navajo Sandstone. The outcrops of this Early Jurassic sandstone (quartz arenite) within Zion National Park, Utah, are interpreted as having been deposited by aeolian processes (Figure 1). The survey site in the Checkerboard Mesa area (37° 13.471' N and 112° 53.792' W) is adjacent to the park road and provided a good location for conducting a GPR experiment. The site is on a sandstone ridge which provided a 40 x 10 m level surface around which three sides of the survey area are exposed to a depth of nearly . . . [Full Text of this Article]