AAPG-SEPM Gulf of Mexico Transect Project

Katrina Coterill, Barry Katz, Roger Slatt

The research committees of the AAPG and Society of Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) have jointly sponsored a regional transect project in the Gulf of Mexico. The transect extends approximately 1300 statute miles from the southern Ouachita tectonic belt in Arkansas to the present day shelf edge, High Island Area-South Addition, offshore Gulf of Mexico. One set of products from the transect project are available through the AAPG in poster format and include a well log cross section, a seismic section tied to well log correlations, and a generalized stratigraphic chart for each of three divisions over the transect. Data used to develop the posters includes well logs, sample logs, mud logs, paleontology, seismic profiles, seismic velocity surveys and synthetic seismograms. A second set of products from the transect project are type well datasets available through AAPG-Masera Database Systems in computer diskette format. Three type well datasets are being developed to coordinate with each of the poster divisions and to provide a more complete database along the original Gulf of Mexico transect. Analyses for each well includes: a) binocular microscope lithology descriptions b) detailed biostratigraphy c) organic geochemistry and d) clay mineralogy by x-ray diffraction. Type well datasets covering the central and southern transect divisions are completed. They are the Arco T&NO Fee (API number 422413031300) and the Atlantic Richfield High Island Block 163 (OCS-G-4731), respectively. The third, most northerly well is nearing completion. The transect project provide a regional correlation framework and enables access to a large reference dataset otherwise unavailable to the public.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995