This study was carried out as part of a broad study of the continental-slope environment in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The primary objectives of this geochemical study of young sediment sequences was to obtain fundamental knowledge of the composition of the organic matter and of the processes involved in the origin and accumulation of petroleum, and to relate these to their geologic controls.

Organic matter incorporated in these slope sediments differs from the organic matter in nearshore sediments in several respects which suggest that the organic matter had been reworked by marine bacteria before it was incorporated in the slope sediments. The presence of slope basins is important in the accumulation and preservation of this organic matter.

The geochemical-source characterization of the slope sediments was based primarily on the amounts of organic matter, total heavy (C₁₅⁺) extractables (bitumen), and total heavy (C₁₅⁺) hydrocarbons and gasoline-range (C₄-C₇) hydrocarbons. These organic-richness parameters are similar on the slope throughout the Gulf. There is a single gross organic facies. A few Pleistocene sequences presently contain enough C₁₅⁺ hydrocarbons and organic matter to be considered source sediments by the criteria currently being applied to older sediments. Many more of these young sediment sequences contain significant amounts of heavy (C₁₅⁺) bitumens which could generate petroleum if sufficiently atured, that is, if exposed to greater depths and temperatures. These sequences are considered to have "source potential."

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