RGGE Data

RGGE Project Data

28 July 2000: Kimmeridge Clay RGGE cores available for sampling
The Natural Environment Research Council's Rapid Global Geological Events (RGGE) special topic "Anatomy of a Source Rock" is now in its penultimate year. The project is based on core material recovered from three boreholes drilled in the type area, at Swanworth Quarry (SY 9675 7823) and at Metherhills (SY 9112 7911). We would like to advertise the availability of the cores' sample half, stored at the Southampton Oceanographic Centre. These part cores will not be archived, and before they are disposed of they will be available for a limited period to anyone interested in taking samples - probably until the end of 2000. In time, the completion of an enlarged core store at the British Geological Survey will ease access to the archive half.

Together, the cores represent a section throughout the Kimmeridge Clay Formation, and have allowed a variety of analytical methods to be applied at high resolution to the full thickness of the formation. Research on the cores to date has resulted in various analytical data-sets including magnetic susceptibility, carbon isotope, trace element, wt% TOC, wt% carbonate, palynology and palynofacies. Detailed graphic logs have been recorded, and the cores are correlated with the type section exposed between Kimmeridge Bay and Chapman's Pool. The cores might be of particular interest to biostratigraphers, as ammonite remains are abundant in certain sections.

Interested parties should contact John Marshall, University of Southampton (John.E.Marshall@soc.soton.ac.uk) or Helen Morgans Bell, University of Oxford (Helen.Morgans-Bell@earth.ox.ac.uk).

22 February 2000
Over the past few months the RGGE cores have been transported in several loads from the Southampton Oceanographic Centre to the British Geological Survey in Keyworth, signalling a switch from data collection to data analysis and interpretation. Having completed graphic logs of the Swanworth and Metherhills cores, it has been possible to produce a composite log of the entire Kimmeridge Clay, extending upwards and downwards the lithostratigraphic classification of the formation based on the relatively incomplete type section between Kimmeridge Bay and Chapman's Pool. Furthermore, the suite of logs created from the cores have been correlated and compared at a high resolution with the type section, allowing thickness changes between the two to be pin-pointed. The host of data-sets generated downhole and from the cores themselves are currently in the process of being examined and compared, these include: magnetic susceptibility, total organic carbon and calcium carbonate data measured at Southampton; elemental data analysed at Reading's Postgraduate Institute of Sedimentology; and isotopic data collected at Newcastle. Moreover, these data are in the process of being amassed for the purposes of the web database currently being designed to hold all the information generated by the RGGE project.

Autumn 1999
We now have numerous datasets plotted against graphic logs of the Swanworth Quarry 1 and Metherhills 1 cores. Together, they provide a continuous record of the Kimmeridge Clay. The datasets include both downhole geophysical logs and information collected from the cores themselves. Initially, the relationship between these various datasets was poorly understood, and analytical work was carried out primarily in relation to two separate and unrelated depth scales: 1) 'true depth' in the case of the downhole geophysical logs, and 2) 'laboratory depth' for the multi-sensor track, elemental and isotopic studies. Recently, the relationship between these depth scales has been resolved, enabling us to plot downhole data against graphic logs of the core, and to plot multi-sensor track, elemental and isotopic data at true depth. The datasets and illustrations linked to this page are simply meant to showcase the work to date. Further details are available from Helen Morgans Bell at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford.

Total and spectral gamma-ray	This example illustrates the gamma-ray data between the White Stone and Middle White Stone Bands.
Magnetic susceptibility	Magnetic susceptibility data about the Encombe Stone Band is shown in this example, along with Thermal Neutron Porosity data.
TOC, CaCO3 and related data-sets	Log for the Cattle Ledge Stone Badn level of the formation, showing weight % total organic carbon, calcite, [100 - (CaCO3+OM)], and TOC 'carbonate free'.
Summary logs (Kimmeridgian and Tithonian parts)	Compiled from the Swanworth Quarry 1 and Metherhills 1 cores. The Kimmeridge Clay log is divided into its Kimmeridgian and Tithonian components.