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Importance of Microfossils

Microfossils have many applications in petroleum exploration, particularly for biostratigraphy and determining paleoenvironmental conditions. Benthic foraminifera can provide information about the sedimentary environment where a rock formed, while planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils are useful for broad biostratigraphic correlation between basins due to their widespread distribution. Palynomorphs like pollen, spores and dinoflagellates can also be used for biostratigraphy despite being transported over long distances. Additionally, microfossils act as reliable indicators of the thermal maturation of rocks, which is important for petroleum exploration.

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1K views

Importance of Microfossils

Microfossils have many applications in petroleum exploration, particularly for biostratigraphy and determining paleoenvironmental conditions. Benthic foraminifera can provide information about the sedimentary environment where a rock formed, while planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils are useful for broad biostratigraphic correlation between basins due to their widespread distribution. Palynomorphs like pollen, spores and dinoflagellates can also be used for biostratigraphy despite being transported over long distances. Additionally, microfossils act as reliable indicators of the thermal maturation of rocks, which is important for petroleum exploration.

Uploaded by

Arsh Attri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Importance of microfossils in Petroleum exploration

Microfossils have many applications to petroleum geology. The two most common uses are
biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental analyses. There are many other uses of fossils besides
these including paleoclimatology, biogeography, and thermal maturation.

Benthic foraminifers give profound information on particular sedimentary environment in


which the rock was formed if containing a particular fossil species. For example, certain species
of foraminifers prefer turbid waters near the mouths of rivers while others live only in areas of
very clear water.

These preferences are recognized by two methods:


(1) studies of the distribution of modern foraminifera and
(2) analysis of the sediments containing ancient microfossils.

Planktonic foraminifera provide less information concerning the environment of


deposition, since they live floating in the water column but they have other advantages.
Whereas benthic foraminifera are restricted to certain environments, planktonic foraminifera are
dispersed over a much broader part of the world oceans and often found in large numbers and
act as very important role in inter basinal biostratigraphic and palaeographic correlation.

Calcareous nannofossils first appeared during the Mesozoic Era and have persisted and
evolved through time. One existing group that produces "nannofossils" is the
Coccolithophorans, which is a planktonic golden-brown algae. Planktonic mode of life and the
tremendous abundance of calcareous nannofossils make them very useful tools for
biostratigraphic correlation.

Palynomorphs including dinoflagellates, pollen and spores are another tool of


biostratigraphic correlation. They are transported by wind and water and can travel long
distances before final deposition. They are surprisingly resistant to decay. Because of the long
transport before deposition, they usually tell us little about the environment of deposition, but
they can be used for biostratigraphy. Fossil pollen and spores can also give us information about
ancient climates. Additionally, the organic chemicals which comprise palynomorphs get darker
with increased heat. Because of this color change they can be used to assess the temperature to
which a rock sequence was heated during burial.

Biostratigraphy plays a critical role in the building of geologic models for hydrocarbon
exploration and in the drilling operations. For a drilling sight the Last Appearance Datum
(LAD) of a particular species may act as marker horizon for potential hydrocarbon reserve and
potential future drilling sight for another location.

One of the most important aspects of petroleum exploration is thermal maturation of


kerogen. Microfossils act as reliable biological palaeothermometer. For example Conodonts are
important palaeothermometer because their colour changes with temperature. Thus, they are
frequently used as indicators of thermal alteration of sedimentary rocks. The change in colour of
conodonts is used in determining the oil and gas windows.
Though it is not microfossil Graptolites (Animal under phylum Hemichordata) are used in
petroleum exploration because they are important thermal indicators and can be used for
determining the degree of maturity of the host rock.

Scolecodonts (A scolecodont is the jaw of annelid), which are another microfossil from
Cambrian to recent are used in thermal maturity studies because their reflectance increases with
increasing temperature.

Spore and pollens may also act as palaeothermometer. The colour is related to the degree of
maturation. The colour changes as a response to heating and depth of burial. The spore color is
a function of the decomposition of organic matter due to coalification and carbonization.

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