Thin-skinned tectonics and potential hydrocarbon traps: Illustrated by a seismic profile in the Valley and Ridge province of Tennessee

Seismic data, although limited to a small part of the western half of the Valley and Ridge province in Tennessee, confirm that the structural style is thin-skinned and that there is a fundamental change from west to east in both the total section preserved and the structural complexities that exist in the subsurface. Cambrian to Upper Ordovician rocks in the Valley and Ridge province have been thrust westward over a 4-mile (6.4-km) projection of Cambrian through Mississippian rocks of the Appalachian Plateau. Structure within the plateau projection is characterized by splay anticlines, whereas structure in the Valley and Ridge is dominated by a series of imbricate thrust sheets containing isolated fault-bound masses of Cambrian sandstone and shale. Both splay anticlines and large fault-bound masses of rocks preserved in the subsurface in east Tennessee may be favorable fracture-porosity traps for the accumulation of hydrocarbons.