Exploration and Development Significance of Post-Permian Folding and Fracturing Within the Permian Basin

Tectonostratigraphic analysis of subsurface data indicates that earlier-formed faults were reactivated after deposition of the Spraberry  Formation submarine fans and the ramp carbonate rocks of the San Andres Formation, both of later Permian age.  Reactivation helped create or modify hydrocarbon traps later than the dominant Carboniferous to early Permian episode of deformation.  This paper proposes that the reactivation occurred during the widespread Laramide foreland deformation but there is no solid evidence for timing.