The Greater Permian Basin (GPB) is one of the largest and most structurally complex regions in

North America. This sedimentary basin is comprised of several sub-basins and platforms. It covers
an area about 250 miles wide and 300 miles long in 52 counties in west Texas and southeast New
Mexico. Thats more than 75,000 square miles! Though it contains one of the worlds thickest
deposits of Permian aged rocks, it was actually named after the period of geologic time (Permian:
299 million to 251 million years ago) where the basin reached its maximum depth of 29,000 feet.

EVOLUTION
The evolution of the basin can be attributed to three distinct phases: (1) mass deposition (2)
continental collision (3) basin filling. Before the Permian Basin was formed, this region was a broad
marine area called the Tobosa Basin. During the Cambrian to Mississippian periods (541 to 323
million years ago), massive amounts of clastic sediments were deposited in this area causing it to
form a depression. What we define as the basin today began forming in late Mississippian and early
Pennsylvanian (323 to 299 million years ago) when the supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana
collided to form Pangea causing faulting and uplift. While the area was covered by a seaway (figure
1), episodes of faulting, uplift, and erosion (associated with the Marathon-Ouachita Orogeny) as well
as different rates of subsidence caused structural deformations in the larger Tobosa Basin that
divided it into sub-basins and platforms.

Figure 1: Paleographic time sequence, from youngest to oldest, of the evolution of the Greater
Permian Basin, Source: DI 2.0 Paleo Layer
The final process that created the GPB was the filling of the sub-basins with sediments. The Midland
Basin, Central Basin Platform, and the Delaware basin are the three main components of the GPB
that we know today. Other sections of the GPB include: the Northwest Shelf, Marfa Bain, Ozona
Arch, Hovey Channel, Val Verde Basin, and Eastern Shelf.

Figure 2: Structural differences between the Delaware Basin, Central Platform, and Midland Basin,
source: Kelly et al. Permian Basin Easy to Oversimplify, Hard to Overlook

DEPOSITION
The Midland and Delaware sub-basins share mutual characteristics such as age and lithology, but
depths, nomenclature, and development vary throughout the GPB. The sub-basins rapidly subsided,
while the platform remained at a higher elevation. This resulted in areas having very different water
depths and depositional environments. The basins accumulated terrigenous clastics that are
associated with deep water environments, whereas coarse grains associated with shallow reef
environments were deposited along the platform. Differences in sedimentary depositions and
tectonics initiated stratigraphic discontinuities between the two sub-basins.

THE MIDLAND BASIN

The eastern Midland Basin accumulated large amounts of clastic sediments from the Ouachita
orogenic belt during the Pennsylvanian (323 to 299 million years ago). As these sediments were
deposited, they formed a thick subaqueous deltaic system that consumed the basin from east to
west. During the Permian period, the delta system was covered with floodplains and was nearly filled
by the Middle Permian.

THE DELAWARE BASIN

The western area of the GPB, the Delaware Basin, was a structural and topographical low that
provided an inlet for marine water during most of the Permian. Minor sedimentation was received
from the low coastal plains that surrounded the basin. While the Midland Basin was almost full of
sediment by the Middle Permian, the Delaware became host to reefs built by sponges, algae, and
microbial organisms. These organisms, along with the deep water inputs supplied by the Hovey
Channel (figure 3), promoted carbonate buildups that formed a higher elevation area which
separated the shallow water and deep water deposits.