Sequence Stratigraphy Enhancement of Biostratigraphic Correlation with Application to the Upper Cretaceous of Northern Siberia: A Potential Tool for Petroleum Exploration

Abstract

Sequence stratigraphy can be used as a tool to bolster weak or low-resolution biostratigraphic correlation. On the basis of sequence stratigraphy, very high resolution correlations can be made if differences in local depositional and tectonic environments are taken into account. We have applied this tool to the Upper Cretaceous of northern Siberia, a frontier area with well-studied biostratigraphy, but with only feeble correlation with the Western world. The Upper Cretaceous biostratigraphy of northern Siberia can be defined on the basis of inoceramids, but this basis fails in detail both at the local level and for the purpose of interregional correlation. The situation can be remedied in part by the application of sequence stratigraphic concepts. These concepts have been developed primarily for passive margins and other rapidly subsiding basins, but with some modifications can be used to correlate depositional and eustatic events recorded in northern Siberian strata with those observed elsewhere througho...