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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
Quantitative biostratigraphy of the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand: A deterministic and probabilistic approach
Roger A. Cooper,1 James S. Crampton,2 J. Ian Raine,3 Felix M. Gradstein,4 Hugh E. G. Morgans,5 Peter M. Sadler,6 C. Percy Strong,7 David Waghorn,8 Graeme J. Wilson9
1Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; email: [email protected]
2Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; email: [email protected]
3Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; email: [email protected]
4Oslo University, Department of Geology, P.O. Box 1047 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway; email: [email protected]
5Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; email: [email protected]
6Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California, 92521; email: [email protected]
7Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; email: [email protected]
8Premier & Shell Pakistan B.V., Jang Building, Fazal-e-Haq Rd., Blue Area, Islamabad, Pakistan
9Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; email: [email protected]
AUTHORS
Roger A. Cooper is interested in time-scale development methodology and the application of quantitative methods in stratigraphy. He is a project leader in the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (formerly, New Zealand Geological Survey). Other interests include the systematics, biostratigraphy, evolution, and ecology of graptolites; Ordovician correlation and time-scale development; and early Paleozoic terrane history and evolution in the southwest Pacific.
James Crampton leads the Geological Time and Environmental Change Programme at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences. His research is focussed primarily on the stratigraphy, molluscan biostratigraphy, and geological history of Cretaceous basins of eastern New Zealand. Other research interests include the use of quantitative techniques in time-scale development and the use of quantitative, biometric techniques to describe complex evolutionary changes in problematic fossil groups.
J. Ian Raine has been a palynologist-biostratigrapher at the New Zealand Geological Survey and its successor organization, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, since 1974. He received his Ph.D. from Australian National University in 1976. His principal research interests are terrestrial palynology of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic of New Zealand and Antarctica and application of computer techniques in biostratigraphy and taxonomy. He has been closely associated with the New Zealand Fossil Record File, a primary database of fossil occurrence data.
Felix M. Gradstein (retired) is chairman of the International Commission of Stratigraphy (ICS), research fellow at the universities of London, Oslo, and Amsterdam, and industry liaison for the Ocean Drilling Project. He, and his long-term associate Frits Agterberg, developed the probabilistic method of biostratigraphy (RASC) to crack complex bug correlations in petroleum basins while working for the Geological Survey of Canada. The newest version of RASC was sponsored by Saga Petroleum.
Hugh Morgans is a micropaleontologist with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences and specializes in foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the Paleogene and Miocene. He is interested in the application of quantitative foraminiferal processing and analysis
for paleoenvironment interpretation and, integrated with magnetostratigraphic and isotopic signatures, for refined biostratigraphy.
Pete Sadler develops the CONOP9 correlation software as part of his research program in quantitative stratigraphy and the completeness of the stratigraphic record at University of California Riverside, where he is a professor of geology. Pete received B.Sc. degree and Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, England. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gottingen before moving to California.
Percy Strong received his B.S. degree from the College of Wooster (Ohio) in 1964 and his Ph.D. from University of Washington in 1969. From 1969 to 1975 he was assistant professor of geology at Mt. Union College (Alliance, Ohio). In 1975 he joined the New Zealand Geological Survey as a micropaleontologist and has continued in this position during the organization's evolution into the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences. His main research interests are Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene foraminiferal biostratigraphy and foraminiferal events at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.
David Waghorn is chief geologist with Premier Exploration Pakistan Ltd. He received a Ph.D. in geology from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1983. Since then he has worked as an exploration and development geologist in Australia, New Zealand, southeast Asia, and Pakistan. He is a member of AAPG, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and the Society of Professional Well
Log
Analysts. He maintains an interest in calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy, is a member of the International Nannoplankton Association (INA), and has worked on practical applications of nannofossil biostratigraphy to operational and development aspects of the petroleum industry.
Graeme J. Wilson gained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and his Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, England. Since 1964 he has worked as a palynologist with the New Zealand Geological Survey and its successors, specializing in Mesozoic and Cenozoic dinoflagellates mainly from New Zealand, Antarctica, the southwest Pacific, Patagonia, and western Europe. He has also published on spores and pollen from late Paleozoic to Pleistocene sequences.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This article is Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences contribution 1798. We thank George Scott, Peter King, and two AAPG Bulletin reviewers, Gregg Blake and Peter Webb, for their constructive comments on the manuscript.
ABSTRACT
A quantitative biostratigraphic analysis
of the Paleocene to lower Miocene of the Taranaki Basin has enabled high precision in correlation, zonation, and assessment of depositional history. Biostratigraphic range-end events, based on 493 taxa in cuttings samples from eight wells, representing foraminifera, nannofossils, dinoflagellates, and miospores, were culled to 87 range-top events that were then analyzed by deterministic (constrained optimization [CONOP]) and probabilistic (ranking and scaling [RASC]) techniques. All except 16 of the events are found to have relatively good biostratigraphic reliability. The RASC probable
sequence
and probabilistic zonation give the best estimate of the
sequence
of events and zones to be encountered in any new
well
in the basin and a precise biostratigraphic scale for future exploration. The CONOP composite section, which matches
well
with that derived by conventional graphic correlation (GRAPHCOR), is readily related to previous zonations based on maximum ranges of taxa but gives an order-of-magnitude greater precision. CONOP provides a precise correlation framework and reveals marked variation in thickness of stages across the basin. When the composite section is calibrated against the time scale, basinwide changes in depositional rate are revealed. The upper Eocene and Oligocene mark an interval of slow deposition, whereas the Miocene marks a sharp increase in deposition. The time-calibrated composite section enables unconformities and changes in depositional rate found in individual wells to be precisely estimated. Many new unconformities are indicated, particularly in the Paleocene and Eocene.
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