Please refer to companion article, “The Giant Oil Field Evaporite Association: A Function of the Wilson Cycle, Climate, Basin Position and Sea Level, ” Search and Discovery Article #40471 (2009).

• Main Authors: Christopher G. St. C. Kendall, Jeffrey Chiarenzelli, Hassan S. Hassan
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Ice cap
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.429.9063; http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2009/40472kendall/ndx_kendall.pdf

The world's source rocks include black shale and carbonates, and these large accumulations of organic matter and petroleum have an irregular temporal beat. The higher concentrations of organic matter are tied to sporadic super-plumes, plate configurations, climate, east coast / west coast ocean circulation, monsoons, allochthonous vs. autochthonous carbon, preservation mechanisms, and other phenomena. Most of the world's largest oil fields are restricted to areas along the southern margin of the Tethys, where specific areas are sweet and others not so productive! We argue that though 60 % of the globe's (preserved) oil deposits are associated with super-plume timing; the explanation for its (preserved) oil potential is also controlled by a combination of an enveloping continental rain shadow, lack of clastic input, and organic production fostering concentrations of organic matter in the geological section from the Precambrian through the Phanerozoic, particularly the Mesozoic, This is principally true of the lee shore of Pangea and the resulting Middle Eastern Giant Fields. Here accumulation of organic-rich sediments appears tied to marine transgressions with shelf-margin flooding as one of the major factors controlling accumulations of organic-rich sediment. Evidence for this relationship is recorded in the Cretaceous section of the southern Mediterranean margin and the Eastern Arabian shelf. The Silurian section of northern Gondwanaland records a glacial ice-cap melt