Palaeoclimate change recorded in Upper Cretaceous (Albian–Cenomanian) Kazhdumi Formation Borehole SPECTRAL Gamma-Ray Logs, South Pars Gas field, Persian Gulf

Abstract

Th/U and Th/K data from spectral gamma-ray logs obtained from outcrop successions have been used as a rapid and inexpensive proxy for determining possible episodes of humid–arid palaeoclimate change. Such outcrop-based measurements have never been tested using spectral gamma-ray data obtained from wireline logs in subsurface boreholes. Th/K and Th/U ratios have traditionally been used to decipher sequence stratigraphic patterns, at outcrop and in borehole. The possible influence of palaeoclimate on such ratio changes has yet to be proven, especially from borehole data. In this work, we compare borehole-derived Th/K (and to a lesser extent Th/U) to palaeoenvironmental changes inferred from palynology and deduce that both sea level and changing hinterland weathering regimes caused discrete fluctuations observed in the spectral gamma-ray logs. This is the first time such subsurface information has been used in this way. Interpretation of wireline logs in terms of palaeoclimate as well as sea level may now be considered, and the use of such logs in palaeoclimate reconstruction is strengthened.