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Organic Petrography and Diagenesis of Leonardian Mudrocks and Carbonates, Midland Basin, Texas (2018)

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

As part of a larger study, organic petrographic features of Leonardian Wolfcamp A repetitive siliceous and calcareous mudrock and fine-grained carbonate lithofacies cycles occurring in the R. Ricker #1 core from Reagan County, Midland Basin, Texas were evaluated. The objectives of the petrographic investigation were to estimate thermal maturity, identify organic matter types and abundances, and identify the presence or absence of migrated hydrocarbons. An integrated analytical program included geochemical screening [total organic carbon (TOC) content by LECO, programmed pyrolysis by HAWK, including from solvent-extracted samples], X-ray diffraction mineralogy, organic petrography, SEM-EDS including correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) and micro-FTIR analyses of solid bitumen. The data indicate all samples are early to middle oil window thermal maturity with solid bitumen reflectance (BRo) values of 0.55 to 0.86% and Tmax of 440 to 455°C. Organic matter is predominantly solid bitumen in all lithofacies with minor contributions from inertinite. Solid bitumen abundance decreases from siliceous mudrock (TOC >3.0 wt.%) to calcareous mudrock (TOC 1.0 to 3.0 wt.%) to fine-grained carbonate (TOC <1.0 wt.%) lithofacies. Interpretations of petrographic data suggest siliceous and calcareous mudrocks are source rock lithofacies and contain solid bitumen (with petroleum generation potential) that is residual from conversion of an original Type II sedimentary kerogen. Whereas, fine-grained carbonates are interpreted as reservoir lithofacies which contained little or no original oil-prone sedimentary organic matter and at present-day contain only a minor component of migrated solid petroleum sourced from adjacent siliceous and calcareous mudrock lithofacies.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5c4f19a7e4b0708288f78d4f
Data Last Modified 2020-08-19T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id ea386071-4b52-45a9-b38a-aaa57bb60c0e
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -101.5259, 31.56, -101.51, 31.571865
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash d43ac0a731cfbd64344468471516acc4369acd5136a62232cfda563384e5606f
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -101.5259, 31.56, -101.5259, 31.571865, -101.51, 31.571865, -101.51, 31.56, -101.5259, 31.56}

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