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Copyright by Nysha Chaderton 2009 - The University of Texas at ...

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Chapter Three: Petrographic Analysis <strong>of</strong> the Scotland Form<strong>at</strong>ion<br />

Sandstones<br />

Eocene-Oligocene sandstones found interbedded with sand and shale in the<br />

succession known as the Scotland Form<strong>at</strong>ion, onshore Barbados, are the equivalents <strong>of</strong><br />

the reservoirs th<strong>at</strong> are being produced from in the Woodbourne oilfield in the southern<br />

part <strong>of</strong> the island. Outcrops <strong>of</strong> this form<strong>at</strong>ion are exposed in the northeastern portion <strong>of</strong><br />

Barbados where the Pleistocene limestone cap has been eroded to expose the underlying<br />

Tertiary sediments.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Scotland Form<strong>at</strong>ion sediments have been interpreted as a<strong>by</strong>ssal plain or<br />

trench deposits th<strong>at</strong> were tectonically incorpor<strong>at</strong>ed into the accretionary prism (Speed<br />

1982; Larue and Speed, 1983; Torrini et al., 1985; Gortner and Larue, 1986). <strong>The</strong>ir<br />

loc<strong>at</strong>ion onshore Barbados Island means th<strong>at</strong>, if these sediments were originally deposited<br />

in a trench setting, they would had to have been tectonized during subduction<br />

deform<strong>at</strong>ion, transported westward and subsequently uplifted after becoming part <strong>of</strong> the<br />

prism. If this is the case, these deposits were potentially transl<strong>at</strong>ed > 100 km westward<br />

from the trench to the present loc<strong>at</strong>ion through shortening <strong>of</strong> the prism.<br />

Although none <strong>of</strong> the previous workers have disputed a trench origin for the<br />

Scotland Form<strong>at</strong>ion, the results <strong>of</strong> previous petrographic analyses suggest th<strong>at</strong> the<br />

Scotland Form<strong>at</strong>ion did not experience such a tectonic history (Larue and Kasper, 1985;<br />

and Larue, et al., 1987; Punch, 2004).<br />

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