BP Gulf of Mexico Neogene Astronomically-tuned Time Scale (BP GNATTS)

Abstract

Abstract This paper introduces an integrated Neogene microfossil biostratigraphic chart developed within post-merger BP for the Gulf of Mexico Basin and is the first published industrial framework “fully-tuned” to orbital periodicities. Astronomical-tuning was accomplished through a 15-year research program on the Ocean Drilling Program’s (ODP) Leg 154 sediments (offshore NE Brazil) with sampling resolution for calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifera ∼20 k.y. and 40 k.y. (thousand year), respectively. This framework extends from the Late Oligocene (25.05 Ma) to Recent at an average Chart Horizon resolution for the Neogene of 144 k.y., approximately double that of published Gulf of Mexico biostratigraphic charts and a fivefold increase over the highest resolution global calcareous microfossil biozonation. Such resolution approximates that of fourth to fifth order parasequences and is a critical component in the verification of seismic correlations between mini-basins in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. Its utility in global time-scale construction and correlation has been proven, in part, by application of the scheme in full to internal research for the Oligocene–Miocene boundary interval on the global boundary stratotype section and point (GSSP) in northern Italy and offshore wells in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. This step change in Neogene resolution, now at the level of cyclostratigraphy (the orbital periodicity of eccentricity) and the magnetostratigraphic chron, demonstrates the potential for calcareous microfossil biostratigraphy to more consistently reinforce correlations of these time scale parameters. The integration of microfossil disciplines, consistent taxonomies, and rigorous analytical methodologies are all critical to obtaining and reproducing this new level of biostratigraphic resolution.