Chemostratigraphy

Chemostratigraphy is a powerful, robust technique that uses changes in major, trace and rare-earth element abundances to characterise and correlate sequences of sedimentary rocks. The technique can be successfully applied in carbonate and clastic lithologies and in apparently uniform successions to complement and extend seismic, sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic

Applications

• Correlation of barren sequences where other stratigraphic techniques are poor
• Complement conventional biostratigraphy to maximise resolution
• High resolution sequence stratigraphy
• Model changes in provenance
• Facies description and analysis
• Understanding diagenetic changes and depositional history
• Individual well to basin scale
• Layering for input into static modelling

Analysis

Chemostratigraphic analysis can be applied to sequences of any age and lithology, and can use ditch cuttings, SWC or core samples. Samples are typically analysed by ICP-OES, ICP-MS or XRF techniques, yielding data for up to 45 elements, with a quick turnaround time.

Data are processed using multivariate statistical techniques, and the results integrated fully with biostratigraphic and sedimentological datasets.