Calcium Carbonate Sedimentation on Northwestern Gulf of Mexico Margin: A New Tool for Chemical Stratigraphy and Depositional Modeling

Douglas F. Williams, Dwight M. Trainor, Thomas Guilderson, Ronald Gamble, Jeffrey Corbin

The percentage of calcium carbonate in 80 box core tops from the Louisiana shelf and slope reveals that sedimentation of CaCO₃ is occurring with characteristic patterns on the margin. The Holocene patterns are directly related to proximity of the Mississippi delta system as it affects the relationship between detrital carbonate input, in-situ production of biogenic carbonate, and dilution by detrital siliciclastic components. The calcium carbonate records in exploration wells and offshore bore holes exhibit large and small-scale changes in the relationship between these components during the Pliocene-Pleistocene. Some of these changes in carbonate content are site specific and other changes record significant lateral (east-west) shifts in major siliciclastic de ocenters along the developing margin during the Pliocene-Pleistocene.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91036©1988 GCAGS and SEPM Gulf Coast Section Meeting; New Orleans, Louisiana, 19-21 October 1988.