PIERCE, ROBERT W., JAMES H. GAMBER, and JEFFREY A. STEIN, Amoco Production Company, Houston, TX

ABSTRACT: Composite Standard Graphic Correlations as a Tool to Visualize Time-Stratigraphic Relationships Among Paleontological, Geological, and Geophysical Data

A synthesis of biostratigraphic data into a composite standard provides a readily accessible, high resolution basis for evaluating time-stratigraphic

relationships by placing fossil datums and other lithostratigraphic markers into a single, chronostratigraphic sequence scaled to a framework of reference sections. A composite standard has the potential to exceed the resolution and applicability of traditional zonation schemes by taking into account all fossils reported, not just zonal markers and their so-called equivalents. Such an integrated database is especially advantageous when data from various sources are to be used and displayed; the incongruities of different zonal schemes are not a problem. Graphic correlation interpretations may be filed, stored and retrieved via the computer. Furthermore, chronostratigraphic evaluations based on graphic correlations to a composite standard very clearly illustrate many important geologic l features. In particular, hiatuses or other breaks in the rock record are defined graphically as horizontal terraces. The length of each terrace spans an interval of geologic time represented elsewhere in the rock record, but absent as rock at that stratigraphic level in the comparison section (e.g., unconformities, normal faults). Similarly, the slope of a line of correlation may be related in a relative sense to a rock accumulation rate. In general, graphic correlation plots are integrated easily into geological displays that combine E-logs and seismic profiles or any other temporally distributed data; they can provide particularly compelling input to sequence stratigraphic interpretations in defining boundaries of depositional units and thus provide a very visual means of synthesizin otherwise seemingly disparate data sets.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90987©1993 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-28, 1993.