Landsat Based Lineament Analysis East Texas Basin and Structural History of the Sabine Uplift Area East Texas and North Louisiana

Most lineaments detected in this study are stream network features. Few lineaments display a one-to-one correspondence with mapped faults or geologic contacts. High values of lineament density demarcate major fault zones. Two regional lineament orientations are significant at the 99-percent confidence level: 325 degrees and 21 degrees. The northwest regional trend is parallel to wellbore elongations at depths down to 8,000 ft in the Jurassic Schuler Formation. The East Texas Basin and the Sabine Uplift have the same significant northwest trend, but the significant northeast lineament orientations for these two subregional structural features are different. The northeast trend in the East Texas Basin is subparallel to that of elongate salt structures there. The northeast trend over the Sabine Uplift may result from stresses generated by upward movement of the uplift. The northwest lineament trend, common to the regional and subregional data sets, is thought to result from gulfward extension in the Gulf Coastal Stress Province where the least principal stress is perpendicular to the coast. Hydraulically generated fractures should propagate perpendicular to the minimum compressive stress and, consequently, perpendicular to the northwest trend of lineaments in this study area. The isopach maps generated in this study show that the Sabine Uplift was part of a large basinal area during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. The Sabine Uplift does not appear to have been a large Jurassic horst that remained in a structurally high position throughout the Cretaceous and Tertiary, as is commonly shown in the literature. Timing, orientation, and magnitude of Sabine arching indicate that the Sabine Uplift may have been produced by northeast-directed tectonic events related to orogenic activity in the southern North American Cordillera and the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico.