Abstract:
This data set presents the results of a coordinated, multidisciplinary study
of Cretaceous carbonate and clastic rocks in cores collected along an E-W
transect across the old Cretaceous seaway that extended from the Gulf Coast to
the Arctic by a team of academic, industry, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
scientists. The overall goal of the study was to construct a
... subsurface
transect of mid-Cretaceous strata that were deposited in the U.S. Western
Interior Seaway (WIS), ranging from pelagic, organic-carbon rich, marine
hydrocarbon source rocks in Kansas and eastern Colorado to nearshore,
coal-bearing units in western Colorado and Utah. This transect of cores has
provided the basis for paleoenvironmental interpretation of organic-carbon
burial in an epicontinental, foreland basin setting. In part, the objectives
of our study were motivated by the research emphases outlined by the
Cretaceous Rhythms, Events and Resources (CRER) Project of the Global
Sedimentary Geology Program.
In particular, the papers in this volume focus on the Graneros Shale, Greenhorn
Formation, Carlile Shale, and Niobrara Formation and equivalents in cores from
drillholes from western Kansas, eastern Colorado, and eastern Utah. This
series of cores provides unweathered samples and continuous, smooth exposures
required for geochemical studies, mineralogical investigations, and
biostratigraphic studies.
Information for the eastern end of the transect was obtained from a hole that
was drilled in 1988 and continuously cored (with better than 90% recovery) by
Amoco Production Company in western Kansas (Amoco Rebecca K. Bounds #1,
Greeley County, Kansas). A Core from the western end of the transect was
obtained in 1991 when the USGS drilled and continuously cored (with better
than 98% recovery) a hole in the Kaiparowits Basin near the town of Escalante
in south central Utah (USGS Escalante #1) A third hole (USGS Portland #1),
was drilled by the USGS and continuously cored (with essentially 100% recovery)
in Cretaceous strata in the Cañon City Basin near Florence, Colorado. A
fourth hole was originally planned for the San Juan Basin in southwestern
Colorado. The need for this hole was eliminated when Mark Leckie and
colleagues continuously trenched a section of the Mancos Shale at the northern
border of Mesa Verde National Park between Durango and Cortez, Colorado.
Other outcrop sections of Mancon Shale and age-equivalent strata also were
sampled and studied by Leckie and colleagues, and their results are reported in
the SEPM volume. Other pre-existing cores that were used for parts of the
study include Plains Resources Schock Errington #1, Sherman County, Kansas;
Coquina Oil Corporation Berthoud State #3 and #4, Larimer County, Colorado;
and Princeton University PU79 near Pueblo, Colorado. All cores are presently
archived in the USGS Core Research Center (USGS-CRC) in Denver.
The data consists of:
Amoco Bounds Core
USGS Escalante Core
USGS Portland Core
Coquina Oil Berthoud State Cores
Leckie Outcrop Data 
