Detailed Gravity and Magnetic Survey of the Taylorsville Triassic Basin

Our research to date has involved the Interpretation of the Bouguer Gravity Anomaly Associated with the Richmond and Taylorsville Triassic Basins and its Vicinity. Continental rift basins around the world contain about 5% of the earth's sedimentary layers and produce about 20% of the total hydrocarbon production of the world (Ziegler (1983). Nearly 30 large basins of this type are reported by Manspeizer and Cousminer (1988) in eastern North America and northwestern Africa. There are eleven exposed basins of this type in the state of Virginia, from which nine are totally and two partially within the state's border. The number of unexposed basin's is not known. Exploration and drilling have been hampered largely because surface data are insufficient for even evaluation of those basins which are partly or completely exposed in the Piedmont Province. Generation of data through random exploratory drilling and seismic exploration is much too expensive and, therefore, these methods have not been widely used. In order to remedy this situation, we have used a geophysical method and completed a detailed and dense ground gravity surveys of the Richmond (Nowroozi and Wong, 1989, Daniels and Nowroozi, 1987). In this work we report our progress on collecting existing gravity data in a rectangular area covering the Richmond and Taylorsville Basins and its vicinity. The area covers one degree latitude and one degree longitude, starting at 37 North, 77 West and ending at 38 North, 78 West. Dr. David Daniels of the United State Geological Survey supplied us with more than 4900 Bouguer gravity anomalies in this area. The purpose of this progress report is to present the data in form of several maps and discuss its relation to the geology of the Triassic Basins and its vicinity. Johnson and others (1985) also presented a map of the Bouguer gravity anomaly of this area. However, their map covers a smaller area, and it is based on smaller number of observations