The 14,585-ft Superior Oil Company well at Stafford Creek, Andros Island, Bahamas, penetrated only limestone and dolomite. Cuttings and cores from the well were analyzed for carbonate mineralogy by X-ray diffraction and for strontium by X-ray fluorescence. Samples from contemporary Bahama marine sediments and from partly indurated surface outcrops were collected and similarly analyzed for comparison.

In Holocene sediments, as well as in the surface rocks, aragonite is more abundant than calcite. In contrast, aragonite is not present in the samples from the well, and some evidence indicates that the depth at which complete conversion takes place is approximately 40 ft. High-magnesium calcite (12 percent MgCO₃) is present in all the Holocene marine sediments which contain appreciable percentages of calcite. No dolomite was found.

The subsurface rocks are completely dolomitized at 400 ft. Four sequences of dolomite, each capped with a unit of limestone or partly dolomitized limestone, are present in the well section and can be correlated regionally as seismic reflecting and refracting horizons. They record four major cycles of deposition, each of which was terminated by a period of erosion and dolomitization. Dolomitization occurs by the solution-cannibalization of the more unstable carbonate phases during uplift. The periods of uplift are related to Cuban orogenic episodes in the Late Cretaceous, middle Eocene, end of Eocene, and early Miocene.