Quantitative biostratigraphic analysis of middle Cretaceous sequences in the Baltimore Canyon Trough, offshore mid Atlantic U.S. margin

• Main Author: Jordan, Leslie Margaret
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: No Publisher Supplied 2019
• Subjects: Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7282/t3-yg51-0680; https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/61774/

I applied multiple quantitative biostratigraphic methods to Cretaceous sequences from the Baltimore Canyon Trough, which lies offshore of the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Here, 569 planktonic foraminifera, nannofossil, and palynological events spanning 25 wells were used to define assemblage and interval zones, as well as major paleoenvironmental changes in the Dawson Canyon, Logan Canyon (three sequences), and Missisauga Formations (two sequences). Further, the ages of the sequences defined by Miller et al. (2018) were temporally constrained based on chronostratigraphically significant biostratigraphic markers that were identified in our analyses. They are as follows: the Late Cenomanian Dcx sequence (Rotalipora cushmani and R. greenhornensis Zone), the early Cenomanian LC1 sequence, the late Albian LC2 sequence (Braarudosphaera africana, Planomalina buxtorfi, and Spinidinium vestitum Zone), the late Aptian LC3 sequence (Cyclonephelium tabulatum Zone), and the early Aptian to Barremian MISS (Aptea anaphrissa, Pseudoceratium pelliferum, and Muderongia simplex Zone). These six biozones are correlated with six strong seismic reflectors that can be traced across the basin. Together, these seismic and biostratigraphic interpretations can be used to evaluate reservoir continuity, that helps assess the viability of the basin as an offshore carbon storage reservoir.