Objective
During the mid-Palaeozoic, sea level changes are sometimes associated with anoxic black shales which internationally form hydrocarbon source rocks. This project investigates late Devonian changes during the period 353-370 million years ago. It aims to document such events in the southern Timan oilfield, pre-polar Urals and Urals of the NIS and, using high-resolution biostratigraphic techniques, to correlate these with the better known rock successions in the British area, Ardennes, Rhenish Schiefergebirge and Montagne Noire areas of west Europe.
Analysis of field work data will be mainly accomplished in NIS laboratories but provision is planned for a visit to European laboratories and for NIS participants to visit critical west European localities when collaborative synthesis of results will be assembled. It is intended that these high-resolution studies will enable chemostratigraphical, magnetostratigraphical and sequential stratigraphic analyses involving other laboratories, not part of this project, to be rigidly time constrained.
Published work by the participants of this project has established an international framework for analysis of sea-level changes during the late Devonian so that the detailed NIS programme will integrate with work largely accomplished in north America, Australia and north Africa, enabling the programme to contribute to sea-level change modelling and palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental synthesis on a global scale for a constrained period in the past.
A contribution to a synthesis of results on late Devonian correlation, environment, sea-level changes, oxic/anoxic setting and climatic interpretation will be made. Five major results are anticipated: detailed biostratigraphic documentation of successive fossil faunas in the Frasnian (Upper Devonian) Timan and adjacent areas; the establishment of environmental interpretation of the environmental changes during the Frasnian and resulting from this with special reference to the anoxic events which are the primary hydrocarbon source rocks of the area; establishment of sea level against time curves for the Timan area; detailed correlation of Timan rock successions with those of Europe, north Africa, eastern north America and western Australia; and an integration to elucidate which of the sea-level changes correlate with other areas of the world and hence are due to changes in global sea level and which are local to the Timan and adjacent areas.
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SO9 5NH Southampton
United Kingdom