Posted on 04/16/2015 4:15:29 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
Yes, those are the remnants of the Cretaceous seas that ran from Alaska all the way down past the east side of the Rockies to Texas. I went on many a field trip to go look at those outcrops near Post and then some much older rocks out near Possum Kingdom. I still have bags of the same oyster shells and numerous other fossils. Those mesas that are now covered with #$%^& windmills are the erosional remnants of the same beds that outcrop in the Hill Country. Lots of dinosaur fossils in the red beds out there. I found part of a rib bone once. Some of the oldest birds in the world have been found in and around Post. The red beds are older rocks called the Triassic, which is the period just before the Jurassic. The oil production in the Permian Basin is from still older rocks.
Your example is localized.
The Permian was a extremely expansive yet shallow sea. The vast majority of production in West Texas is from sedimentary sandstone and shale. Limestone production (ancient coral beds) is small in comparison.
Again, we need to ascertain the genesis of the hydrocarbons and...the industry doesn’t agree that it is simply “dead barnacles and coral”.
Still, the ratio of decay cannot support the amount of petro-hydrocarbons being extracted from the Permian Basin.
You can trace individual coal beds for tens of miles. Go to the Book Cliffs near Moab, Utah. World-class exposures.
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