Mt. Carmel field is in the upthrown side of the Foskee Fault and is about 

 305 m (1,000 ft) higher than the Jay field. Sweetwater and Black Jack Creek 

 fields to the southwest of Jay also lie in the downthrown side of the Foskee 

 Fault, an anticlinal trap. According to a 1978 article: 



There is reason for expectation of further development in these 

 fields: The presence of Jurassic salt limestone, and marine 

 shales warrants a continued exploration effort in this embay- 

 ment. Gravity work and the wells drilled to date, indicate 

 both stratigraphic and structural traps may be present. Fur- 

 ther exploration effort, concentrated in those areas which have 

 a thick Smackover section may eventually lead to a commercial 

 oil discovery (Applegate 1978). 



Sweetwater Creek Field was plugged and abandoned in December 1980 (Fig- 

 ure 3). Production at the Jay Field and other Northwest Florida fields is 

 expected to decline steadily (Klein 1982). It remains to be seen whether fur- 

 ther exploration will take place (Curry and Tootle 1980). 



OFFSHORE 



Hydrocarbon-bearing formations in the Gulf of Mexico are generally asso- 

 ciated with sub-seabed vertical salt movements that form salt domes. Under 

 the weight of the overlying beds, salt is squeezed upwards piercing sedimen- 

 tary beds and arching those that are closer to the seabed surface into domes. 

 The domes are typically topped by caprock. Oil and gas accumulates along the 

 flanks of these salt domes (U.S. Department of the Interior 1980a). 



The West Florida Shelf and Slope extends from the DeSoto Canyon in the 

 Gulf of Mexico eastward to The Straits of Florida in the Atlantic. Geologi- 

 cally, it is considered the submerged extension of peninsular Florida. Most 

 of the oil industry's interest in this area has been in the Destin Dome area, 

 where salt domes and anticlines were the principal exploratory drilling tar- 

 gets. Although wells drilled in the Destin Dome area were dry, a number of 

 piercement domes (diapirs) lie at the head of the DeSoto Canygon. These domes 

 probably will be the center of future exploratory drilling near Northwest 

 Florida. 



MINERAL COMMODITIES AND PRODUCTION 



The most significant resource in the region, aside from oil, is sand and 

 gravel. The region's largest production comes from Escambia County, most of 

 which is used for construction purposes. 



Titanium ores are recovered from sand deposits (most abundant in Escambia 

 County) that contain titanium rich minerals such as ilmenite and rutile. The 

 minerals are concentrated by removing the quartz sand and then separated and 

 purified by electrostatic and magnetic processes (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

 1978). Coastal sands and terrace deposits contain from 3% to 7% heavy min- 

 erals. One of two major processing regions of Florida is along the coastal 

 area from Panama City to the Alabama border (Tebeau et al . 1965). 



137 



