Development of a Borehole Log Signature for Oceanic Anoxic Events and Its Application to the Gulf of Mexico
type: CreativeWork
description: Oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) are periods in Earth's history when oceans were depleted in dissolved oxygen and characterized by deposition of organic-rich sediments. The Oceanic Drilling Program (ODP) has drilled through OAEs in a number of areas worldwide, collecting core and borehole log data. This project attempts to identify a characteristic signature from known ODP OAE sections using these data and to apply the signature to identify OAE intervals in Gulf of Mexico wells where cores are lacking. Additionally, pseudo density curves were generated from ODP logs and compared to bulk density logs to determine if the deviation between the two would aid identification of OAE intervals. A general, though not fool proof, signature of high gamma ray, uranium, neutron porosity and low density was seen in nearly all of the ODP holes. Using this signature 20 potential OAE intervals were identified in the Gulf of Mexico.
abstract: Oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) are periods in Earth's history when oceans were depleted in dissolved oxygen and characterized by deposition of organic-rich sediments. The Oceanic Drilling Program (ODP) has drilled through OAEs in a number of areas worldwide, collecting core and borehole log data. This project attempts to identify a characteristic signature from known ODP OAE sections using these data and to apply the signature to identify OAE intervals in Gulf of Mexico wells where cores are lacking. Additionally, pseudo density curves were generated from ODP logs and compared to bulk density logs to determine if the deviation between the two would aid identification of OAE intervals. A general, though not fool proof, signature of high gamma ray, uranium, neutron porosity and low density was seen in nearly all of the ODP holes. Using this signature 20 potential OAE intervals were identified in the Gulf of Mexico.
author: Brewton, Asani
keywords: Cretaceous, anoxic, organic-rich, oceanic anoxic event, pseudo density, log characteristic, gamma ray, uranium, density
date published: 2008-12-19T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:28:50Z
provider: University of New Orleans
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of New Orleans