Date of Award

Summer 1988

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Ocean & Earth Sciences

Program/Concentration

Geology

Committee Director

Stephen J. Culver

Committee Member

Carl F. Koch

Committee Member

Randall S. Spencer

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.G4O74

Abstract

In the subsurface of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, sediments from the Anahuac Formation in the #1 J. W. Steen well are assigned an Upper Oligocene-Lower Miocene age based on planktonic foraminifera. Previous age determinations for sediments from this formation elsewhere range from Middle to Late Oligocene based on the presence of larger foraminifera contained within these strata. Planktonic foraminifera in Anahuac formation sediments in the #1 J. W. Steen well permit their assignment to an established worldwide zonation scheme and indicate that the age ranges from the Globorotalia kugleri Interval Zone (Upper Oligocene) to the Catapsydrax dissimilis Zone (Lower Miocene). Benthic foraminiferal assemblages indicate the presence of the Heterostegina and Discorbis Zones in the Anahuac Formation with the Oligocene-Miocene boundary level occuring within the Discorbis Zone.

Paleoenvironmental reconstructions based upon benthic foraminifera indicate that the sediments of the Anahuac Formation within the well were deposited in marine waters ranging from 100 to 200 meters depth and decreased up section to depths of 20 to 100 meters. Possible explanations for this shallowing upwards sequence include, but are not limited to, eustatic sea level fall, increased regional sediment supply, or local variation in sedimentation and subsidence rates

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/bb3w-pj22

Download

Share

COinS