Basement control as the origins of the Mount Enterprise Fault System (MEFS) a possible degassing mechanism for the Haynesville Shale, Rusk County, Texas

The Mount Enterprise Fault System, one of the four East Texas Basin formers, is of unknown origin due to the lack of local subsurface study. It lies in an East-West trend directly west of the border of Northwest Louisiana and East Texas. This system of normal faulting lacks major halokenisis signature on the eastern half, which suggests against salt retreat. However, evidence found in this study could ultimately support the origin be linked to the Jurassic Louann Salt or large scale Paleozoic to Mesozoic basement tectonics. The hypothesis of sediment loading does not correlate with movement of the faults, in that they are northward facing listric growth faults. In addition, there is no evidence of regional flexure that denatures the lithology.;In the southern half of Rusk County, gravity data acquisition, processing, and modeling postulate the possibility of igneous basement displacing the strata. Data acquired came from a LaCoste & Romberg Model G gravimeter, accompanied by a Trimble Pro XRS GPS system in order to achieve submeter elevational accuracy. Well logs provided accurate densities and depths of formations. Additional structures and faulting were located and mapped. The faulting of this region is being considered as a degassing mechanism for the Haynesville Shale natural gas play that straddles the aforementioned border of Louisiana and Texas. The findings of the study support scale-large tectonic origins with a later dominant halokinetic influence. Recognizable hydrocarbon-loss implications have been noted within production data.