Subsurface Geology of a Prograding Carbonate Platform Margin, Great Bahama Bank: Results of the Bahamas Drilling Project

Abstract

SEPM Special Publication Series No. 70, Robert N. Ginsburg (Editor), 2001, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology), Tulsa, OK, 271 p. ($65 non-members, $40 members) ISBN: 1-56576-077-8. The present volume summarizes the scientific results of the Bahamas Drilling Project, the fruit of an idea born in Robert Ginsburg's Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory at the University of Miami. Two continuous core holes named Unda and Clino were drilled on the western margin of the famous Bahamas carbonate platform to depths of 454 m and 677 m, respectively, and subsequently analyzed by a large team of geoscientists from different institutions that were brought together to participate in an exemplary project in carbonate geology. The volume contains a preface by the editor and 12 papers grouped into five categories: (1) background, (2) lithostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy, (3) diagenesis and geochemistry, (4) petrophysics, and (5) sequence stratigraphy. The volume includes a total of 163 figures, 35 tables, and a 1.2 m2 fold-out in a pocket in the back cover of the book. The comprehensive index lists 235 topics. Robert Ginsburg provides an introductory overview of the scientific background of the Bahamas Drilling Project, and describes log acquisition and project operations in the first main division of the volume. Fundamental questions of carbonate platform progradation are listed along with previous research in the Bahamas as background to the listed objectives of the project. These objectives include: (1) testing the earlier interpretation of some 30 km of platform progradation based on seismic interpretation (Eberli and Ginsburg, 1987, 1989); (2) evaluating the influence of sea level change on platform facies and architecture; (3) seeking lithologic reasons for seismic sequence boundaries; and (4) characterizing depositional facies, diagenesis, and timing. The drilling was accomplished between April and June 1990, and operations are described briefly and illustrated by photos. Following the …