Abstract: A Stratigraphic Framework for the Miocene to Recent Northern Gulf of Mexico

Andy Pulham, Gillian Apps, Cindy Yeilding, Kevin Boyd, Mick Casey

Regional Exploration data acquired and interpreted within BP Exploration during the past five years, allied with published data, has resulted in a nine-fold subdivision of the Miocene to Recent deposition across the northern Gulf of Mexico. The nine time slices generated link shallow-water deltaic and shelfal deposits with their down dip deep-water equivalents by utilizing high resolution biostratigraphic data, wellog sequence stratigraphic analysis, net sand isopachs and regional seismic mapping. The resultant maps document dramatic changes in the nature of sediment input to the basin through the Miocene as the Mississippi River became the dominant force. In the Late Miocene to Pleistocene major switches in the location of Mississippi River Delta are the overriding feature of the str tigraphic evolution described.

Linkage of our nine-fold scheme to the sequence stratigraphic framework of the Gulf of Mexico suggests that eustasy is an important catalyst in hastening and timing some of the more important paleogeographic reorganizations. The location of the major depocenters is also profoundly effected by the response of shallow buried salt to a focused sediment supply.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994