What's Oil Doing in Pennsylvania?
Here's what the stratigraphy looks like in the area where the famous
Drake Well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania. In actuality,
these formations are very hard to trace because the geology can
change rapidly from place to place. This is very typical of highly
crossbedded sandstone deposits formed near an ancient shoreline,
the kind that form stratigraphic traps.
To illustrate the point of highly changeable geology, the Drake
well actually struck oil within the Riceville Shale. If we've learned
anything about reservoir rocks, we know that they generally are
not shales. As it turns out, even shales sometimes contain thin
horizons that are more sand-rich, which can act as a very local
Fox, John S. (1989). "Some Geological Aspects of the Oil Creek Valley
Region". History of the Petroleum Industry Symposium: September 17-20,
1989. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. pgs. 46-53.
Dickey, P.A. (1941). Oil Geology of the Titusville Quadrangle, Pennsylvania:
Pa. Geol. Survey, 4th series, Bull, M-22, 87 pp.
Ansley, Jane E. (2000). Teacher Friendly Guide to the Geology of the
Northeastern United States. Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca,
NY, 182 pp.
about the history of the Oil Regions of Pennsylvania