Re: S&L+ Where Do We Go From Here?

["Mike Styzen Shelf Expl, 588-4308" <mstyzen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Norm MacLeod writes about attaching time significance to the smallest
possible scale to biozones.  First let me say that what I consider to
be important in biostratigraphy is the sequence of events (event B is
below event A and above event C).  Geologic time significance is an
externally imposed concept that I am forced to deal with.  Recently I
have been burdened with the task of assigning ages to all the regional
biostratigraphic events we use in the Gulf of Mexico. This has been
accomplished by bracketing the events (mostly extinctions in our
business, never see core samples here, only cuttings) between published
dates and extrapolation.  Some of those published dates are pretty
close together.  If an event is between them I am required to split the
difference which sometimes results in a very small time increment. 
This may not be all that unreasonable, however, because sedimentation
rates where we are working can approach 35meters per 1000 years.
Needless to say sometimes events that are considered more or less
synchronous in the deep sea can be widely seperate to us. Anyway that
is why biostrat can be done (at least in the oil business) regardless
of statistical effects.  
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|      Michael J. Styzen               Phone: (504) 588-4308            | 
|      Shell Offshore Inc.    	       Room:  OSS-2920            
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|      P.O. Box 61933                  Email: mstyzen@shell.com         | 
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