About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

GCAGS Transactions

Abstract


Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions
Vol. 47 (1997), Pages 654-654

Abstract: Interpreting Sequence Stratigraphic Architecture from Biostratigraphic Signatures: Case Studies from the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Garry D. Jones

ABSTRACT

Digital capture of microfossil data from well and outcrop samples permits rapid computer analysis and plotting biostratigraphicrange charts, cross plots, and 'curves'. Integrating these biostratigraphic plots with log and seismic data indicates the microfossilrecord reliably characterizes the key stratal surfaces (flooding surfaces and sequence boundaries) which underpin the interpretation of sequence stratigraphic architecture.

Using in-house software (The Integrated Paleontologic System=IPS), I generated and interpreted biostratigraphic plots integrated with log data for >200 wells in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The well sections range in age from Oligocene to Pleistocene and represent deposition in fluvio-deltaic through lower-bathyal paleoenvironments. Field- to exploration-scale case studies illustrate the value of using biostratigraphic signatures to help solve geologic problems via an integrated, sequence-stratigraphic approach.

IPS-generated paleobathymetry curves covering various chronostratigraphic intervals from many Gulf locations provide the raw material for defining local to regional, relative sea-level events. Also, the vertical succession of paleobathymetry changes associated with higher-order sequences can produce unique stratigraphic signatures useful for detailed correlation.

Future research should: (1) document biostratigraphic signatures across well-constrained cycles in sea level from different dippositions and accommodation settings; (2) apply numerical techniques to integrate biostratigraphic data with log and seismic attributes and achieve computer-generated geologic interpretations.

End_of_Record - Last_Page 654-------

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND ASSOCIATED FOOTNOTES

Spirit Energy 76, Lafayette, LA

Copyright © 1999 by The Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies