Subsurface controls on historical subsidence rates and associated wetland loss in southcentral Louisiana

Two regional releveling profiles and six tide gauges provide a basis for evaluating recent rates of delta plain subsidence in southcentral Louisiana. Analyses of these records demonstrate close correlations among highest historical rates of subsidence, rapid wetland losses, large volume hydrocarbon production, and probable reactivation of deep subsurface faults. Other researchers have demonstrated that the highest geological subsidence rates of the Mississippi delta plain (<3 mm/yr) correspond closely to the thickest Holocene sediments that fill the underlying incised valley. Within that geologic framework, highest historical subsidence rates (as much as 23 mm/yr) correspond to surface projections of the reactivated Lake Hatch and Golden Meadow fault zones and to individual oil and gas fields. The initial acceleration and subsequent decline in rates of wetland loss in southcentral Louisiana are attributed partly to increased and then possibly decreased rates of subsidence that were related to increased and then decreased rates of fluid production. Decreases in subsurface pore pressures associated with gas production were so large that the state of stress was altered and critically stressed faults were likely reactivated. Subsidence rates in coastal Louisiana associated with natural compaction and dewatering of Holocene deltaic sediments should decrease with time. Therefore historical rates of delta plain subsidence that accelerate and typically exceed geological subsidence rates are most likely influenced by anthropogenic activities, such as subsurface fluid extraction.