DOI: 10.25921/q65t-zy07
title: NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Dean and Arthur 1998 Western Interior Seaway Drilling Project Data

description: Data of past climate and environment derived from unusual proxy evidence.  Parameter keywords describe what was measured in this data set.  Additional summary information can be found in the abstracts of papers listed in the data set citations.

description: The SEPM volume referenced above presents the results of a coordinated, multidisciplinary 
study of Cretaceous carbonate and clastic rocks in cores collected along an E-W  transect 
across the old Cretaceous seaway that extended from the Gulf Coast to the Arctic by a team 
of academic, industry, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists.  The overall goal of 
the study was to construct a subsurface transect of mid-Cretaceous strata that were 
deposited in the U.S. Western Interior Seaway (WIS), ranging from pelagic, 
organic-carbon rich, marine hydrocarbon source rocks in Kansas and eastern Colorado to 
nearshore, coal-bearing units in western Colorado and Utah.  This transect of cores has 
provided the basis for paleoenvironmental interpretation of organic-carbon burial in an 
epicontinental, foreland basin  setting.  In part, the objectives of our study were 
motivated by the research emphases outlined by the Cretaceous Rhythms, Events and Resources (CRER) 
Project of the Global Sedimentary Geology Program.

In particular, the papers in this volume focus on the Graneros Shale, Greenhorn Formation, 
Carlile Shale, and Niobrara Formation and equivalents in cores from drillholes from western 
Kansas, eastern Colorado, and eastern Utah.  This series of cores provides unweathered 
samples and continuous, smooth exposures required for geochemical studies, mineralogical 
investigations, and biostratigraphic studies.  

Information for the eastern end of the transect was obtained from a hole that was drilled in
1988 and continuously cored (with better than 90% recovery) by Amoco Production Company in 
western Kansas (Amoco Rebecca K. Bounds #1, Greeley County, Kansas).  A Core from the 
western end of the transect was obtained in 1991 when the USGS drilled and continuously 
cored (with better than 98% recovery) a hole in the Kaiparowits Basin near the town of 
Escalante in south central Utah (USGS Escalante #1)    A third hole (USGS Portland #1), 
was drilled by the USGS and continuously cored (with essentially 100% recovery) in 
Cretaceous strata in the Cañon City Basin near Florence, Colorado.  A fourth hole was 
originally planned for the San Juan Basin in southwestern Colorado.  The need for this 
hole was eliminated when Mark Leckie and colleagues continuously trenched a section of the 
Mancos Shale at the northern border of Mesa Verde National Park between Durango and Cortez, 
Colorado.  Other outcrop sections of Mancon Shale and age-equivalent strata also were 
sampled and studied by Leckie and colleagues, and their results are reported in the 
SEPM volume.  Other pre-existing cores that were used for parts of the study include 
Plains Resources Schock Errington #1, Sherman County, Kansas; Coquina Oil Corporation 
Berthoud State #3 and #4, Larimer County, Colorado; and Princeton University PU79 near 
Pueblo, Colorado.   All cores are presently archived in the USGS Core Research Center 
(USGS-CRC) in Denver.

Amoco Bounds Core

	The Amoco Production Company, Rebecca K. Bounds #1 well was drilled in March of 1988 
in Section 17, T18S, R42W, Greeley County, Kansas, to a total depth (TD) of 2645 feet 
(806 meters).  Ground level elevation was 3824 feet (1166 meters).  The hole was 
continuously cored from a depth of 522 feet (159 meters) to TD using Amoco's slim-hole 
high-speed advanced drilling system (SHADS) also known as stratigraphic high-speed 
advanced drilling system.  Coring began in the middle of the Smoky Hill Member (Santonian) 
of the Niobrara Formation and bottomed in the Mississippian.  In January, 1992, the 
Cretaceous part of the Bounds core (522 -1495 feet; 159-456 meters) was released by 
Amoco and shipped to the USGS-CRC in Denver.  The core was slabbed at the USGS-CRC, 
and a 2-cm-thick slab of the core is archived there.  

USGS Escalante Core

	The USGS Escalante #1 well was drilled by the USGS in June of 1991 in Section 36, 
T35S, R2W, Garfield County, Utah, to a total depth (TD) of 910 feet (277 meters).   
Ground level elevation was 6000 feet (1829 meters).  The hole was continuously cored and 
logged to TD.  Coring recovered all of the Cenomanian/Turonian Tropic Shale, the bottom 
of the overlying Tibbet Canyon Member of the Straight Cliffs Formation, and the top of the 
underlying Dakota Group.

USGS Portland Core

	The USGS Portland #1 well was drilled by the USGS in June and July of 1992  on the 
quarry property of Ideal Cement (Holnam Corp.) in Section 2, T19S, R68W, near the town of 
Florence in Fremont County, Colorado, to a total depth (TD) of 700 feet (213 meters).  
Ground level elevation was 5200 feet (1585 meters).  The hole was continuously cored and 
logged to TD.  Coring began in the middle of the Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Formation
and bottomed in the top of the Dakota Group.

Coquina Oil Berthoud State Cores

	The Coquina Oil Corporation Berthoud State #3 and #4 wells in the Berthoud oil field 
north of Fort Collins, Colorado, also are not formally part of the Western Interior Seaway 
Drilling Project, but geochemical data on samples of the Niobrara and Greenhorn Formations 
from cores from these wells are presented by Dean and Arthur.  The wells are located in 
Section 16, T9N, R69W, Larimer County, Colorado.  Total depth (TD) was 3500 feet 
(1067 meters).  Ground level elevation was 5019 feet (1530 meters).

Princeton University PU79 Core

	A core of the Greenhorn Formation was collected by Al Fischer, then at Princeton 
University near the Pueblo Reservoir, Pueblo County, Colorado.  Geochemical data on samples 
from this core are presented by Dean and Arthur.  

Leckie  Outcrop Data

	Data are presented by Leckie et al. on abundances of planktic and benthic foraminifera,
and percentages of clay minerals in samples of Mancos Shale and the age-equivalent Bridge Creek
Limestone Member of the Greenhorn Formation from outcrop sections at Lohali Point, northeastern
Arizona, Mesa Verde National Park, southwestern Colorado, and Rock Canyon near Pueblo, 
southeastern Colorado.