Biostratigraphical zonation and correlation of five Late Cretaceous-Tertiary wells, offshore central West Greenland

Abstract

During 1976 and 1977, five exploratory wells were drilled offshore central West Greenland, between 65° and 68°N (figs 1 and 2) (Henderson et al., 1981). The Geological Survey of Greenland (GGU) received samples from all the wells, comprising 2228 composite cutting samples (10 m interval), 456 sidewall cores, 30 m conventional core and 3276 samples of varied provenance. From this material, two independent biostratigraphical analyses on 1000 ditch cutting samples and 65 sidewall cores were perforrned within GGU. One survey was based on palynomorphs (Croxton, 1981 and internal reports), the other, by the author, was based on foraminifera and larger diatoms. In addition to GGU's investgations, 14 reports concerning the micropalaeontology and biostratigraphy of the five wells were prepared by exploration companies and consultants on the basis of foraminifera, palynomorphs (identifications by, inter alia J. M. Hansen and L. I. Costa), diatoms, radiolarians and ca1careous/siliceous nannoplankton (identifications by, inter alia K. Perch-Nielsen). This constitutes the total amount of accessibie biostratigraphical data from the offshore part of the West Greenland Basin; it comprises more than 8000 analysed samples. Compilation of the biostratigraphical data from these sources, allows a fairly detailed stratigraphical correlation and understanding of the five wells (Toxwenius, 1986). In this paper a summary of the stratigraphy and successive correlation of the five wells is presented. The lithostratigraphy and sedimentology of the wells have been reported by Rolle (1985).