evidence for enhanced aridity in the tarim basin of china since 5 3 ma abstract thick cenozoic deposits formed from the erosion of the northern evolving edge of the tibetan plateau provide opportunities to study the exhumation history and climatic changes within the region such deposits are important because they are located in an actively deforming mountain belt as well as in a rain shadow of the tibetan plateau multi proxy studies indicate that hyperarid climate has prevailed since 5 3 ma ago within the basin this information together with the geometry analysis of syntectonic deposits of the sanju anticline which indicate tectonic deformation at 5 3 ma enable us to better understand the interlay between climatic changes and tectonic uplift our results suggest that the tectonic uplift of the kunlun mountains at 5 3 ma must have been one of the significant regional tectonic events and the uplifted elevation of the kunlun mountains more effectively blocks the penetration of moisture from the indian monsoon into the tarim basin and thus enhances the rain shadow effect this can account for the increasing aridity as well as the formation of the world s second largest active sand desert the taklimakan desert in the tarim basin initiated at 5 3 ma ago

regional geology and petroleum systems of the illizi berkine area of the algerian saharan platform an overview abstract the berkine and illizi basins are palaeozoic mesozoic intraplate depressions that preserve an over 7000 m thick sedimentary rock record and contain world class petroleum systems with over 39 bboe eur hydrocarbon reserves regional seismic transects and a wealth of well data are used to review the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the area the gondwana palaeozoic and tethys mesozoic supercycles make up the bulk of the phanerozoic succession these 1st order cycles record extensional basin formation followed by a protracted period of overall net subsidence and conclude with basin inversion and regional uplift during the hercynian and alpine orogenies respectively structural styles were dictated by transpressional or transtensional reactivation of mostly nne oriented basement structural grain of late proterozoic ea cambrian pan african age and vertical movement of long wavelength regional highs and lows local tectonism is considered to be the far field effect of plate tectonic processes that affected the north african plate boundaries such as the caledonian and hercynian orogenies the opening of the tethys and atlantic oceans and the alpine orogeny these were accompanied by localised thermal mantle processes regional unconformities subdivide the gondwana and tethys supercycles into eight and seven megasequences respectively these regional units often record 2nd order transgressive regressive cycles that constrain the mapping of reservoir seal pairs and of main source rock intervals the lower palaeozoic megasequences are characterised by sand rich laterally extensive coarse grained fluvial and shallow marine reservoirs interbedded with thin and widespread marine shales they were mostly deposited in shorelines of shallow epeiric seas and continental braided river systems or during the late ordovician in a short lived continental glacial system third order sequences display ramp style geometries with largely parallel to low angle sigmoidal stratal patterns early mesozoic sedimentation followed the late palaeozoic uplift and peneplanation in the form of hinterland sequences containing fluvial and alluvial sandstones and playa lake mudstones and evaporites interbedded with thin lacustrine or shallow marine shales and dolomites the prolific petroleum systems that evolved within these series are associated with the early silurian and late devonian world class source rocks and numerous paleozoic and triassic reservoirs this regional review provides a renewed comprehensive insight into the geological evolution of the area that can help guide local exploration efforts but also serves as a model for exploration in other intracratonic basins of the world

deltaic sedimentation in the devonian of western libya abstract middle and upper devonian deposits from the aouinet ouenine formation in the southern ghadames basin of western libya provide a well exposed example of a deltaic complex containing both progradational and transgressive facies progradational facies comprise both laterally accreting and incised distributary channels overlying prodelta deposits also present is a progradational beach environment showing build up from an offshore shelf through nearshore shelf to shoreface and foreshore sub environments over lying these progradational facies are transgressive tidal flat washover fan foreshore and nearshore deposits the characteristics and interrelationships of the different facies are explained by two sedimentation models progradational facies existed contemporaneously during phases of active sediment supply whereas the transgressive facies existed contemporaneously during periods of diminished or absent detrital influx

new insights into the magnetic variations of aeolian sands in the tarim basin and its paleoclimatic implications abstract the tarim basin where aeolian activity is widespread has been regarded as a major source for global dust production therefore knowledge about variation of magnetic parameters in aeolian sands from the tarim basin has a global significance systematic rock magnetic studies of aeolian sands from this region are still scarce because of the vast area and poor accessibility of the basin in this paper multi parameter rock magnetic investigations of a larger number of aeolian sand samples from a wide area in the tarim basin have been conducted we find that magnetic properties of aeolian sands are controlled by changes in the concentration of larger pseudo single domain and multidomain magnetite grains which are produced by weathering and erosional processes in the surrounding mountain regions in addition aeolian sands collected from different geographic regions of the tarim basin exhibit different magnetic properties suggesting that selective wind and river transport and low temperature oxidation might play a critical role for the magnetic properties of aeolian sands in the tarim basin our study also provides a better understanding of the complex relationships between magnetic properties and source materials for pliocene deposits in the basin

cyclostratigraphic calibration of the frasnian late devonian time scale western alberta canada until now the duration of the frasnian stage has remained very poorly constrained hampering a detailed understanding of sedimentation processes and environmental and evolutionary change in this study timeseries analyses of high resolution 10 20 k y magnetic susceptibility data identify sixteen 405 k y eccentricity cycles in the magnetic susceptibility stratigraphy of the frasnian late devonian derived from carbonate platform and surrounding slope and basin deposits in western alberta canada previous studies demonstrated the generally consistent pattern of magnetic susceptibility change across the alberta basin and thus demonstrated the utility of magnetic susceptibility stratigraphy as a refi ned regional correlation tool compared to biostratigraphy in the present study we show that the magnetic susceptibility stratigraphy of the frasnian interval in western alberta has been signifi cantly infl uenced by astro nomical forcing using the sixteen 405 k y eccentricity cycles as a geochronometer we constructed a frasnian astronomical time scale this time scale indicates a duration of 6 5 0 4 m y for the frasnian calibrating this duration to the best available devonian chronology the absolute age of the givetian frasnian boundary is recalculated to 383 6 3 0 ma and the age of the frasnian famennian boundary is recalculated to 376 7 3 0 ma these new absolute ages take into account the astronomically derived duration of the frasnian but they also yield a narrowing of the error margins of the absolute ages by several hundreds of thousands of years

interpreting benthic oxygen levels in mudrocks a new approach quantified paleoecology and gamma ray spectrometry have been applied in the analysis of the kimmeridge clay a highly organic rich british jurassic mudrock decreasing benthic oxygen trends are reflected in decreasing species richness and dominance diversity values similarly the degree of fragmentation of the benthos reflects the benthic energy levels and covaries with benthic oxygen the calculation of authigenic uranium values from data gathered by gamma ray spectrometry shows enrichment in more oxygen deficient environments the good correlation between the independently derived paleoecological and authigenic u data indicates the importance of these techniques in environmental analysis of marine petroleum source rocks

frasnian conodonts at high palaeolatitude amazonas basin north brazil abstract a conodont fauna is studied from the subsurface of upper devonian black shales belonging to the abacaxis member of the barreirinha formation amazonas basin two samples of other members of this formation are barren the fauna consists of cryptotaxis sp a mehlina gradata ozarkodina aff sannemanni polygnathus sp and probably prioniodina sp this association suggests a late frasnian age agreeing with the age previously assigned to the latest frasnian to middle famennian palynomorphs the conodont fauna is added to another two late frasnian middle famennian conodont occurrences in bolivia and brazil the coincidence in age and facies black shales seems to indicate a unique time environment favourable to the immigration and development of conodonts in the devonian of northern south america the low diversity association suggests cold water dwelling taxa spreading to a high palaeolatitude during an episode of gentler latitudinal temperature gradient

temporal spatial reconstruction of the early frasnian late devonian anoxia in nw africa new field data from the ahnet basin algeria anoxic conditions were widespread in nw africa during the early frasnian late devonian that resulted in deposition of organic rich shales and limestones with total organic carbon toc values of up to 14 organic richness and thickness of these sediments vary laterally and organic rich vs organic poor facies boundaries are likely to have been diachronous a precise temporal spatial reconstruction of this anoxic phase in nw africa is complicated because the organic matter in outcrops is largely oxidised and biostratigraphic resolution in boreholes is generally low due to the lack of recoverable conodonts this contribution is based on eight outcrop sections at the margin of the central algerian ahnet basin where detailed spectral gammaray measurements were carried out using a handheld instrument the pre weathering organic richness in frasnian outcrop sections is approximated using the characteristic uranium enrichment in the anoxic facies that based on well studies is positively correlated with the total organic carbon content conodont biostratigraphic results from these sections suggest that the uraniumenriched interval the anoxic interval at the basin margin is most common in the basal frasnian conodont biozones 1 2 confirming previous results from the anti atlas in morocco in three of the eight localities studied the basal frasnian has not been deposited and the frasnian here commences with distinctly younger uranium enriched intervals including zones 4 11 well data from the eastern algerian berkine basin is interpreted to indicate a significantly longer anoxic phase there million yearscale diachroneities of the frasnian anoxia therefore clearly exist across the north africa shelf it is assumed that the palaeorelief might have been a major factor in controlling the onset duration and intensity of anoxia in the region d 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

anoxic events in the late frasnian causes of the frasnian famennian faunal crisis carbon isotope data collected from five frasnian famennian boundary sections in central europe show two positive 13 c excursions in the late frasnian 367 ma both anomalies coincided with the deposition of the bituminous lower and upper kellwasser horizons the carbon isotope patterns indicate two phases of enhanced burial and subsequent recycling of organic carbon a maximum formation of warm saline waters on the subtropical to tropical epicontinental shelves during late frasnian transgressive episodes may have induced oceanic oxygen deficits variations in the c org burial rates may have resulted in changes in the co 2 concentrations in the oceans and in the atmosphere culminating in global climatic changes we propose that the repeated co occurrences of sea level fluctuations anoxic conditions and global climatic changes during the late frasnian would affect especially the subtropical to tropical shallow water communities and reef ecosystems which were severely affected during the frasnian famennian faunal crisis

ichnofabrics and chemostratigraphy argue against persistent anoxia during the upper kellwasser event in new york state abstract organic rich strata coeval with bioevents of varying magnitudes characterize global devonian sedimentary successions the upper kellwasser ukw black shale depositional event is coincident with the largest pulse of diversity loss within the marine late devonian mass extinction and has been shown to be an ecologically critical turnover for shallow water species marine anoxia euxinia is widely thought to be an important and ubiquitous driver of this biotic crisis though the duration intensity and global extent of these environmental conditions during the ukw event are not well constrained we characterized redox conditions during deposition of the ukw in the northern appalachian basin to constrain local variability and relative magnitude of dissolved oxygen fluctuations we used a combination of proxies relating to the bottom waters water column and photic zone to compile an integrated picture of basinal oxygen dynamics our multi faceted approach combines trace fossil evidence for faunal activity at the sediment water interface with inorganic and organic geochemical proxies for redox conditions within the water column minor biological disruptions to laminated sedimentary fabric indicate at least intermittent oxygenation of the bottom waters during deposition of the ukw albeit in a low dissolved oxygen seafloor setting trace metal proxies mo mn u and v and fe mineral speciation provide compelling evidence for a water column experiencing intermittent rather than persistent anoxic euxinic conditions lipid biomarkers reinforce the interpretation of variable dissolved oxygen conditions with very low concentrations of chlorobi carotenoid biomarkers pointing to seasonal rare episodes of photic zone euxinia this integrated dataset provides evidence for local redox variability in ukw deposition and supports the likelihood that marine anoxia and euxinia were not globally persistent at the frasnian famennian boundary

deciphering the upper famennian hangenberg black shale depositional environments based on multi proxy record abstract presented for the first time in this paper are the results of a detailed multi proxy investigation conducted on the hangenberg black shale hbs from the polish part of the laurussian shelf which provide details about the environmental conditions in existence during deposition of the shale and the role played by anoxic conditions in the mass extinction events that occurred at the end of the devonian times inorganic and organic redox indicators indicate that bottom water redox conditions changed periodically from being mainly anoxic euxinic to oxic or being partially depleted in oxygen u th values above 1 25 ni co values above 7 and v v ni values above 0 8 recorded from the lower part of the hbs all point to anoxic euxinic conditions being present as do high total organic carbon contents toc above 10 and degree of pyritisation dop values around 0 75 however the presence of benthic fauna over the lower part of the hbs attests to opportunistic colonisation of the seafloor during oxic episodes evidence for similar episodes has also been recognised over the middle part of the hbs e g u th values below 1 25 ni co values below 4 v v ni values below 0 8 toc values of 3 to 5 5 and dop values of 0 4 to 0 75 plus the common occurrence of benthic fauna anoxic conditions returned during the deposition of the upper part of the hsb though they were not as well developed as when the lower part of the shale was laid down of interest is the presence of small pyrite framboids and isorenieratene biomarkers in all the analysed samples which suggest that euxinic conditions persisted in the photic zone of the water column a twenty centimetre thick layer of volcanogenic deposits tuffites is present in the middle part of the hbs the geochemical characteristics of which are typical of ocean floor basalts the occurrence of volcanogenic material below and within the hbs together with an absence of calcium carbonate over its upper part the presence of abundant tetrads just above the black shale and a drastic decrease in faunal frequency in the upper part of the hbs imply that volcanism may have caused oceanic acidification or hypercapnia that in turn potentially may have influenced the hangenberg mass extinction event

mineral magnetic investigation of the talede loess palaeosol sequence since the last interglacial in the yili basin in the asian interior summary the loess palaeosol deposit in the asian interior is sensitive to the evolution of the westerlies thus providing a good opportunity to investigate regional palaeoenvironmental evolution and its relationship with global climatic changes multiparameter mineral magnetic investigations have been conducted on the talede section in the yili basin asian interior our study finds that 1 loess samples have higher concentration magnetic minerals than palaeosols though the magnetic mineral composition is similar ferrimagnetic magnetite antiferromagnetic hematite and lepidocrocite 2 large pseudo single domain psd and multidomain md like grains dominate both in loess and palaeosols however magnetic mineral grains in loess are much coarser than those in the palaeosols 3 palaeosols contain approx 30 per cent more amount of hematite than the loess samples the frequency dependent susceptibility of both loess and palaeosols is very low indicating the small amount of super paramagnetic grains and the higher fd per cent values of palaeosols also reveal that palaeosols have more amounts of ultrafine magnetic grains than loess the magnetic variations in part 1 and 2 can be well explained by the wind vigour model but the observed enrichment of hematite and ultrafine magnetic grains in palaeosols also reveals the first onset of pedogenic enhancement therefore the talede section could be seen as an end member of the classic chinese loess plateau clp magnetic enhancement model

review and update of the applications of organic petrology part 1 geological applications abstract organic petrology developed as coal petrology at the beginning of the 20th century dedicated mainly to the study of coals because of their utilization in industry coal petrology was then considered a branch of coal science later with the development of specialized nomenclature classification of coal components and the standardization and improvement of analytical microscopical methods this discipline expanded in interests and name becoming organic petrology organic petrology carries a broader context being as well a tool applied in the study of dispersed organic matter in sedimentary rocks due to its importance in exploration for fossil fuel resources at present organic petrology is a discipline widely recognized for its role in fundamental and applied research with respect to both coal utilization and in geosciences throughout the 20th century several important monographs have been published on the discipline of organic petrology including stach s textbook of coal petrology 1st edition 1935 2nd 1975 3rd 1982 updated as the more general organic petrology by taylor et al 1998 more recently the text applied coal petrology the role of petrology in coal utilization was published by suarez ruiz and crelling 2008 this review is the first in a two part review series that describes and updates the role of organic petrology in geosciences a second part complementing this one and focused on the applications of organic petrology to other scientific fields will follow

determination of organic matter content of appalachian devonian shales from gamma ray logs the organic matter content of the devonian shale of the appalachian basin is important for assessing the natural gas resources of these rocks and patterns of organic matter distribution convey information on sedimentary processes and depositional environment in most of the western part of the appalachian basin the organic matter content of the devonian shale can be estimated from gamma ray wire line logs using the equation phgro ggrb ggr 1 378a where phgro is the organic matter content of the shale fractional volume ggr the gamma ray intensity api units ggrb the gamma ray intensity if no organic matter is present api units and a the slope of the crossplot of gamma ray intensity and formation density api units g cm3 the quantities a and ggrb vary regionally and are mapped using data from gamma ray and formation density wire line logs organic matter contents estimated using this equation are compared with organic matter contents determined from direct laboratory analyses of organic carbon for 74 intervals of varying thickness from 12 widely separated wells the organic matter content of these intervals ranges from near zero to about 20 by volume excluding the cleveland member of the ohio shale and the lower part of the olentangy shale the distribution of the differences between volume percent organic matter content determined from core samples and estimated from gamma ray logs has a mean of 0 44 and a standard deviation of 1 98 which indicates that the accuracy of the gamma ray method is adequate for most geologic applications the gamma ray intensity of the cleveland member of the ohio shale and the lower pa t of the olentangy shale is anomalously low compared to other devonian shales of similar richness so that organic matter content computed for each of these units from gamma ray logs is likely to be too low wire line methods for estimating organic matter content have the advantages of economy readily available sources of data and continuous sampling of the vertically heterogenous shale section the gamma ray log in particular is commonly run in the devonian shale its response characteristics are well known and the cumulative pool of gamma ray logs forms a large and geographically broad data base the quantitative computation of organic matter content from gamma ray logs should be of practical value in studies of the appalachian devonian shale the general approach described here may also be applicable to other formations with physical and geochemical characteristics similar to the appalachian devonian shale

wind energy environments and dunefield activity in the chinese deserts there are few detailed analyses of the wind energy environments and dunefield activity in the chinese deserts on the basis of wind data and other climatic parameters collected at meteorological stations in and around the deserts this paper considers wind environments and dunefield activity in the chinese deserts in the 1990s the results show that dunes in most of the deserts were developed and controlled by low energy wind regimes although most dunes had the morphology of transverse and linear types which is consistent with wind regimes some deserts did not show close relations between dune morphology and regional wind directional distributions due to other controls although sand transport mainly occurs in spring and early summer there is strong sand transport activity in winter in some deserts dune activity in the chinese deserts has great spatial variations the regions with low dune activity are located in the chaidm mu us hobq horqin and nenjiang deserts due to much higher annual precipitation in these regions the areas with strong dune activity are located in the eastern taklimakan and northern badain jaran deserts due to arid conditions and much stronger winds

extent and persistence of photic zone euxinia in middle late devonian seas insights from the canning basin and implications for petroleum source rock formation abstract late devonian mass extinctions attributed to extensive anoxia and or euxinia of the oceans are associated with widespread deposition of organic rich shales also in the epeiric waters of the canning basin western australia photic zone euxinia pze prevailed during the givetian frasnian with geochemical evidence for pze on the northern lennard shelf and southern barbwire terrace margins of the fitzroy trough on the lennard shelf shales record episodic pulses of pze associated with high algal activity due to enhanced nutrient supply whereas a restricted marine setting on the barbwire terrace is thought to be the main driver for the development of persistent pze and associated bacterial predominance structural evidence indicates that the fitzroy trough was a confined basin during the late devonian with the possibility of limited ocean circulation widespread pze is expected to have developed in the poorly mixed water column if the basin received sufficient nutrient supply for enhanced primary production notwithstanding the presence of anoxia during deposition of potential source rocks only two small devonian sourced oil fields and numerous oil shows have been found in the canning basin biomarker assemblages show that the oils produced from the lennard shelf fields i e blina 1 blina 4 and janpam north 1 have substantially different molecular compositions to the minor oil recovered from mirbelia 1 on the barbwire terrace a correlation was established between the lennard shelf oils and rock extracts from the gogo formation at blina 1 and mcwhae ridge 1 based on their hopane sterane and carotenoids abundances a definitive source correlation was not obtained for the mirbelia 1 oil but it did show some genetic affinity to the givetian frasnian extracts from the barbwire terrace suggesting that local source rocks are developed in the region

lower silurian hot shales in north africa and arabia regional distribution and depositional model abstract lowermost silurian organic rich hot shales are the origin of 80 90 of palaeozoic sourced hydrocarbons in north africa and also played a major role in petroleum generation on the arabian peninsula in most cases the shales were deposited directly above upper ordovician peri glacial sandstones during the initial early silurian transgression that was a result of the melting of the late ordovician icecap deposition of the main organic rich shale unit in the north african arabian region was restricted to the earliest silurian rhuddanian stage acuminatus atavus and probably early cyphus graptolite biozones during this short period 1 2 m y a favourable combination of factors existed which led to the development of exceptionally strong oxygen deficiency in the area in most countries of the study area the post rhuddanian silurian shales are organically lean and have not contributed to petroleum generation the distribution and thickness of the basal silurian hot shales have been mapped in detail for the whole north african region using logs from some 300 exploration wells in libya tunisia algeria and morocco in addition all relevant accessible published and unpublished surface and subsurface data of the lower silurian shales in north africa and arabia have been reviewed including sedimentological biostratigraphic and organic geochemical data the lowermost silurian hot shales of northern gondwana are laterally discontinuous and their distribution and thickness were controlled by the early silurian palaeorelief which was shaped mainly by glacial processes of the late ordovician ice age and by pan african and infracambrian compressional and extensional tectonism the thickest and areally most extensive basal silurian organic rich shales in north africa occur in algeria tunisia and western libya while on the arabian peninsula they are most prolific in saudi arabia oman jordan and iraq the hot shales were not deposited in egypt which was a large palaeohigh at that time the depositional model presented may help in better understanding the source potential of the basal silurian shales in less explored regions of north africa and arabia including morocco northern niger and the kufra basin in southeast libya

mantle layering from scs reverberations 1 waveform inversion of zeroth order reverberations this is the first paper in a four part sequence that examines the nature of mantle layering required by the multiple scs phases and internal reflections observed within the reverberative interval of sh polarized seismograms here we present path averaged estimates of the two way travel times through the crust mantle scs and crust alone m the whole mantle quality factor qscs and the reflection coefficient at the m discontinuity r0 zm obtained by iterative waveform inversion of scs reverberations we show that qscs estimates derived from direct waveform inversion can be biased significantly if reverberations originating within the crust are ignored especially in continental regions where the crust is thick applying our technique which explicitly models crustal reverberations we substantially expand the geographical coverage of scs and qscs measurements available from previous studies the scs data correlate well with whole mantle travel times predicted by the harvard tomographic models both the scs data and the qscs data support the hypothesis that variations in velocity and attenuation structure between old continents and oceans persist to depths of several hundred kilometers in particular the value of qscs derived for paths crossing stable continent is very high 280 30 at 30 mhz compared with that for mature ocean basin 189 16 consistent with the thick plate model of cratons requiring that differences in thermal structure extend to several hundred kilometers the crustal thicknesses implied by the observations of path averaged m are consistent with those inferred from short range refraction data gravity measurements and surface topography the path averaged reflectivity of the m discontinuity is also tectonically correlated becoming brighter as the percentage of continental crust encountered along the path increases this result implies that on average the impedance at the base of the continental crust is significantly lower than at the base of the oceanic crust

late cenozoic eolian deposition in the north pacific asian drying tibetan uplift and cooling of the northern hemisphere a newly constructed record of eolian dust accumulation from the central north pacific shows that dust deposition increased by an order of magnitude quite rapidly at 3 6 ma we associate this sudden drying with the uplift of at least the northern portion of the tibetan plateau shutting off the indian ocean moisture source to central and western china this ten fold increase in atmospheric dust loading appears to be associated with the 1 m y long shift toward heavy 18o values that occurred at 3 6 2 6 ma the dust grain size record of wind intensity begins its late cenozoic coarsening a million years before the drying event at 4 5 ma the northern hemisphere cooling that results in intensification of the subpolar westerly winds may have as its ultimate cause the drawdown of atmospheric co2 in the latest miocene and the early pliocene closing of the panamanian seaway

effective petroleum source rocks of the world stratigraphic distribution and controlling depositional factors six stratigraphic intervals representing one third of phanerozoic time contain petroleum source rocks that have provided more than 90 of the world s discovered original reserves of oil and gas in barrels of oil equivalent the six intervals are 1 silurian generated 9 of the world s reserves 2 upper devonian tournaisian 8 of reserves 3 pennsylvanian lower permian 8 of reserves 4 upper jurassic 25 of reserves 5 middle cretaceous 29 of reserves and 6 oligocene miocene 12 5 of reserves this uneven distribution of source rocks in time displays no obvious cyclicity and the factors that controlled the formation of source rocks vary from interval to interval maps that show facies structural forms and petroleum source rocks were prepared for this study analysis of the maps indicates that several primary factors controlled the areal distribution of source rocks their geochemical type and their effectiveness i e the amounts of discovered original conventionally recoverable reserves of oil and gas generated by these rocks these factors are geologic age paleolatitude of the depositional areas structural forms in which the deposition of source rocks occurred and the evolution of biota the maturation time of these source rocks demonstrates that the majority of discovered oil and gas is very young almost 70 of the world s original reserves of oil and gas has been generated since the coniacian and nearly 50 of the world s petrole m has been generated and trapped since the oligocene the term petroleum as used in this study includes oil gas condensate and gas but does not include bitumen and other solid and semisolid oil derivatives

minor and trace element and re os chemistry of the upper devonian woodford shale permian basin west texas insights into metal abundance and basin processes the trace and minor element and re os geochemistry of the upper devonian woodford shale are analyzed in order to characterize elemental abundances to identify associations among trace elements and to constrain paleoceanographic conditions and depositional processes this organic carbon rich mudstone in the permian basin west texas is a major source of hydrocarbons in the basin and is coeval with many other upper devonian shales in north america the woodford lacks enrichment in many trace metals only mo u s and se are significantly enriched other redox sensitive elements are depleted or similar to average shale composition including pb bi cr ti cu zn co and v elements associated with granitic sources such as rare earths th ce and tio2 are also depleted relative to average shale this appears to be related to be a source control a strong basin reservoir effect is noted among several redox sensitive elements including mo cu and ni which largely accounts for the depletion dilution by biogenic silica had an additional effect on metal concentrations multivariate factors analysis identified associations between elements including groupings of rare earth elements elements enriched in granitic crust silica varying antithetically with elements in carbonate minerals organic carbon mo and u v phosphate fe and s noteworthy among the results are the different behavior of redox sensitive elements suggesting different precipitation mechanisms or varying dependence on reservoir effects a strong redox effect is noted in the toc ptot ratio at approximately the frasnian famennian boundary indicating an abrupt transition to an anoxic column boundary that coincides with a short term significant fall in sea level this suggests that anoxia was induced by isolation of the basin from the global ocean however with the exception of the uppermost famennian initial 187os 188os values determined from re os geochronology for the permian basin are similar to correlative sections of the appalachian and peace river basins of north american and the rhenohercynian basin of europe this indicates that although the permian basin became restricted during the upper devonian and early mississippian ocean connectivity remained between regional and global basins

petroleum assessment of berkine ghadames basin southern tunisia hydrocarbon exploration in the berkine ghadames basin in southern tunisia has generally followed global economic trends in recent years improvements in seismic data acquisition combined with experience gained in log interpretation in low resistivity reservoirs have resulted in oil and gas discoveries in the upper silurian acacus formation enriching the hydrocarbon potential of the berkine ghadames basin in southern tunisia presently the tunisian daily oil production is approximately 43 000 bbl about half of which comes from the fields located in southern tunisia and is produced from the acacus formation the berkine ghadames basin is an intracratonic basin formed during the pan african orogeny it covers an area of approximately 350 000 km2 135 135 mi2 and extends into algeria libya and tunisia the sedimentary section within the basin ranges from cambrian to present and is approximately 7000 m 23 000 ft thick in the depocenter the basin has experienced several tectonic events which have modified its architecture and affected the petroleum systems and hydrocarbon pathways in this study the main elements of the petroleum geology systems are described with the geochemical modeling results the petroleum potential hydrocarbon generation expulsion time and quantity of hydrocarbon are assessed the main petroleum systems are also defined they are represented by the silurian tannezuft hot shale source rock with ordovician djeffara and silurian acacus reservoirs by silurian tannezuft hot shale with kirchaou reservoirs and by the devonian aouinette ouinine formation member iii source rock with kirchaou reservoirs the hydrocarbon traps in the area are mainly structural types the study describes and emphasizes the hydrocarbon migration pathway mechanism from source rocks to traps to predict and derisk future drilling locations fairway maps are generated for the three plays ordovician silurian and triassic although the paper focuses on southern tunisia an attempt is made to introduce libyan and algerian knowledge to evaluate the basin in a regional context

the global frasnian famennian kellwasser event during the uppermostp gigas conodont zone p linguiformis zone the stepwise frasnian extinction culminates in the global transgressive regressive frasnian famennian kellwasser event most pelagic organisms of the tropical marine environment are more or less affected by this mass extinction during the early upper devonian extinction rates are clearly related to the deposition of black shales and the storage of a great amount of organic carbon in the shelf sediments contemporaneous positive excursions of the 13c recorded from pelagic limestones of europe and australia prove a worldwide change in the co2 content of the oceans surface water which is in balance with the atmosphere if the climate is controlled by the co2 content of the atmosphere a cyclic operation process might have developed with the succession transgression high organic production deposition of organic carbon lowering of co2 in the atmosphere icehouse effect polar glaciation regression erosion of organic carbon and re supply of co2 to the ocean and atmosphere greenhouse effect deglaciation transgression during the change from a greenhouse to an icehouse effect an overturn of the anoxic oceans probably was one of the causes for the mass killing of low latitude marine organisms

a practical model for organic richness from porosity and resistivity logs a practical method the delta log r technique for identifying and calculating total organic carbon in organic rich rocks has been developed using well logs the method employs the overlaying of a properly scaled porosity log generally the sonic transit time curve on a resistivity curve preferably from a deep reading tool in water saturated organic lean rocks the two curves parallel each other and can be overlain since both curves respond to variations in formation porosity however in either hydrocarbon reservoir rocks or organic rich non reservoir rocks a separation between the curves occurs using the gamma ray curve reservoir intervals can be identified and eliminated from the analysis the separation in organic rich intervals results from two effects the orosity curve responds to the presence of low density low velocity kerogen and the resistivity curve responds to the formation fluid in an immature organic rich rock where no hydrocarbons have been generated the observed curve separation is due solely to the porosity curve response in mature source rocks in addition to the porosity curve response the resistivity increases because of the presence of generated hydrocarbons the magnitude of the curve separation in non reservoirs is calibrated to total organic carbon and maturity and allows for depth profiling of organic richness in the absence of sample data this method allows organic richness to be accurately assessed in a wide variety of lithologies and maturities using common well logs

the hydrocarbon systems of north africa abstract north africa s hydrocarbon reserves are spread over a wide range of reservoirs and play types but derive from only a few key source rock intervals particularly those in the silurian late cretacous and eocene source rock maturity together with the timing of the generation relative to trap forming and destructive events seem to be the key controlling factors on success or failure at a basin level in most cases generation clearly post dates trap formation although a more complex relationship is evident in various parts of algeria where some traps did not form until gas was being generated source rock deposition and maturation can be tied to two main extensional tectonic cycles which ended in the compressional and destructive events of the hercynian and alpine orogenies remaining exploration potential in mature provinces may be tied largely to subtle and stratigraphic traps in addition significant frontier potential can be identified in two main fairways corresponding to regions where silurian devonian and cretaceous eocene sources respectively are likely to have generated petroleum critical factors in these areas are timing of generation and preservation the gas discoveries in the ahnet basin provide analogues for palaeozoic generation preservation models in the interior silurian devonian source fairway similarly the key to success for the mesozoic basins of the atlas region lies in demonstrating a favourable relationship between trap formation destruction and generation from late cretaceous and eocene source rocks

organic matter deposition in the ghadames basin libya during the late devonian a multidisciplinary approach the organic rich deposits of late devonian age are the second most important petroleum source rocks in the ghadames basin libya from available stratigraphy the peak of organic matter deposition corresponding to a level of radioactive shales easily recognized in gamma ray logs occurred at the frasnian famennian transition the present study was focused on samples from borehole d1 26 located in the central part of the ghadames basin belonging to the aouinet ouenine iii and iv formations frasnian to famennian the mineral and organic content of the rocks were analyzed in order to determine the origin of organic matter accumulation and estimate if the organic matter enrichment could be related to the well known upper kellwasser event the results indicate that during the frasnian the planktonic primary productivity was moderate but anoxic conditions reaching the euphotic zone were frequent and allowed efficient preservation of the organic matter at the frasnian famennian transition the deposition of the radioactive shales level can be related to a eustatic rise which allowed incursion of nutrient rich water in the basin leading to increase in primary productivity and photic zone anoxia during the famennian the conditions changed associated with a relative sea level fall and or a progradation of detrital sediments originating from the south photic zone anoxia was only episodic and plankton derived organic matter was poorly preserved nevertheless the important influx of organic matter of terrestrial origin allowed significant enrichment of the sediment in organic matter several indications suggest the radioactive shales interval could be coeval with the upper kellwasser level nevertheless further stratigraphic work is needed to confirm this hypothesis

the world s most spectacular carbonate mud mounds middle devonian algerian sahara abstract in the southern ahnet basin of algeria a unique middle devonian underwater scenery is revealed which consists of 191 mud mounds 15 mud ridges and 2 mud atolls distributed over nine discrete areas of a shallow pelagic carbonate shelf all the buildups are totally exhumed thus perfectly exhibiting their original morphologies slope angles elevations and the pattern of the onlapping strata as well as their relationship to the surrounding off buildup sequences types of buildups include 1 small mud mounds 1 5 m high 10 20 m diameter 2 large mud mounds up to 40 m high up to 200 m diameter 3 lens shaped mounds 1 30 m thick 10 15 slopes 4 mud ridges up to 100 m high 150 8500 m long and 5 semicircular mud atolls 2500 2800 m long 20 30 m high the buil ups were constructed during a short time span in the early givetian part of the lower varcus zone probably not exceeding a few hundred thousand years sedimentation rates in coeval off buildup areas were at least 3 10 times lower the lithology of the buildups is a massive boundstone with a high proportion of irregular spar filled cavities stromatactis but only very scattered potential frame builders the carbonate mud is considered to be an in situ cyanobacterial precipitate although evidence of such is poor organic components of the buildups are not significantly different from those of the off buildup lithologies and include numerous crinoid ossicles some tabulate and solitary rugose corals brachiopods mollusc debris trilobites and very rare sponge spicule and bryozoans the total absence of stromatoporoids large tabulate and colonial rugose corals green algae and micritic envelopes around grains suggests growth of the buildups in the lower part of the photic zone 100 200 m they are onlapped by a discontinuous sequence a few meters thick of skeletal packstones and grainstones and locally orthoceratid floatstones that were deposited later in the givetian a widespread rise of sea level in the early frasnian buried both buildups and adjacent areas under shales and siltstones postdepositional alteration of the mud buildups includes 1 formation of stromatactis cavities probably by dewatering and internal erosion 2 cementation of stromatactis cavities and interparticle pore spaces by early high mg calcite and late blocky low mg calcite 3 neomorphic transformation of mg calcitic mud and aragonitic skeletal debris 4 occasional formation of neptunian dikes 5 slight erosion of buildup surfaces 6 compaction and slumping of onlapping capping beds and 7 local dolomitization the formation and growth of the mud build ups is envisaged as a sequence of stages starting with patchy coral thickets evolving into small mud mounds that coalesced into larger mounds by continuous vertical and lateral growth closely spaced mounds amalgamated into mud ridges and mud atolls regular nw se and n s patterns of some mound rows and ridges show a relationship of buildup formation to rejuvenated late precambrian tectonic lineaments which reappear in the hercynian orogeny the isotopic signature of matrix and early ements of mound rocks however does not support the idea of fluid migration and hydrothermal co2 supply during buildup growth

the magneto susceptibility event and cyclostratigraphy msec method used in geological correlation of devonian rocks from anti atlas morocco magneto susceptibility event and cyclostratigraphy msec is used here as a means of establishing sensitive chronostratigraphic markers and chronohorizons useful for high resolution correlation msec is a composite of the magnetic susceptibility ms record of marine strata and the coeval biostratigraphic record and similar to chronozones zones based on msec data have boundaries that are isochronous ms a measure of the concentration of magnetic grains in sediments proxies for the ratio of lithogenic to biogenic components controls on the detrital input of lithogenic material include eustasy and climate however induced and sea floor basin subsidence the development of an initial msec composite reference curve for the middle upper devonian of the anti atlas region of southern morocco is presented and discussed in the context of global sea level transgressive and regressive cycles msec trends composed of increasing ms magnitudes correlate well with episodes of regression whereas trends of decreasing ms magnitudes correlate with episodes of transgression