PD Dr. Sebastian Lüning
Black Shale
Research

 

Black shale data resources sorted by region


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Silurian 'hot shales' of
North Africa

Silurian of the Arabian Peninsula &
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Silurian 'hot shales' of
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black shales sorted...
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Looking for information on black shales in a specific region? This catalogue sorts useful material by region. A click on the right continent brings you straight to the alphabetic listing of countries for that continent. If you look for black shales with a specific age, also try the listing sorted by stratigraphic age because not all resources are included in both catalogues.

Regionally sorted data on black shales:
- Click on continent of interest -

 

North America

South America

Europe

Africa

Asia

Australia / Pacific Ocean

Antarctica

 


NORTH AMERICA

Canada

  • Upper Ordovician (Lower Ashgillian) oil shales of the Whitby Formation. Exposed
    in Ottawa and many other places along eastern Quebec, Ontario, and Western New York State (Utica Formation). Contains trilobites that are often pyritized.
    (thanks to Robert Sensenstein, Ottawa, for this information)
  • The Precambrian Animike Group (Rove Formation)
    The Precambrian Keweenawan Supergroup (Oronto Group)
  • The Ordovician Lindsay Formation (Collingwood Member, Eastview Member)
  • The Ordovician Georgian Bay (Meaford-Dundas) Formation (Humber, Credit and Erindale Mbrs)
  • The Silurian Rochester Formation
  • The Silurian Lockport Formation (Vinemount Shale Bed, Eramosa-Vinemount Shales)
  • The Silurian Bertie Formation (Oatka Member)
  • The Devonian Marcellus Formation
  • The Devonian Hamilton Group (Bell and Widder Formations)
  • The Devonian Kettle Point Formation
  • The Devonian Long Rapids Formation
  • The Mississippian Port Lambton Group (Sunbury Formation)
    (thanks to Julian Goldberg for that information) .
  • Cretaceous, Manitoba
  • Black shales, Newfoundland/Labrador
  • Kimmeridgian, Offshore Eastern Canada (incl. Delta LogR Method)

Greenland

  • Petersen, H. I., J. A. Bojesen-Koefoed, H. P. Nytoft (2002): Source rock evaluation of Middle Jurassic coals, northeast Greenland, by artificial maturation: aspects of petroleum generation from coal. AAPG Bull. 86: 233-256.

USA

  • Upper Ordovician (Lower Ashgillian) oil shales of the Whitby Formation. Exposed
    in Ottawa and many other places along eastern Quebec, Ontario, and Western New York State (Utica Formation). Contains trilobites that are often pyritized.
    (thanks to Robert Sensenstein, Ottawa, for this information)

  • Pittsford Black Shale (Late Silurian, NY)
  • Silurian eurypterids from black shales of the Pittford area (NY)

  • New Albany Shale (Late Devonian)
    Ellsworth Shale (a member of the New Albany Shale):
  • Chattanooga Shale, Late Devonian, SE USA
  • Uranium-rich black shales, Late Devonian, Arkansas
  • Frasnian/Famennian Kellwasser extinction, black shales, NY
  • Cleveland Shale, Late Devonian (Famennian), Ohio (where it is a
    vertebrate lagerstatte) and Kentucky.
  • Huron Shale, Late Devonian (Famennian), Ohio and Kentucky.
  • Sunbury Shale, Early Mississippian (Kinderhookian), Ohio and Kentucky


  • Parrish, J.T., Droser, M. L., Bottjer, D. J. (2001): A Triassic Upwelling Zone: The Shublik Formation, Arctic Alaska, U.S.A. J. Sedimentary Res. 71: 272-285. Discussion and Reply in J. Sedimentary Res. 72 (5): 740-743.
  • Cretaceous and Tertiary source rocks in the Gulf of Mexico
  • Source rock data, New Mexico

 

SOUTH AMERICA

Colombia

 

EUROPE

Austria

  • H.-M. Schulz, R.F. Sachsenhofer, A. Bechtel, H. Polesny, L. Wagner (2002): The origin of hydrocarbon source rocks in the Austrian Molasse Basin (Eocene-Oligocene transition). Marine and Petroleum Geology 19: 683-709.

Estonia

  • Oil Shale Mining in Estonia (1, 2)

France

  • Upper Jurassic black shales in Boulonnais (Wignall, Newton)
  • Wignall, P. B. & R. Newton (2001): Black shales on the basin margin: a model based on examples from the Upper Jurassic of the Boullonnais, northern France. Sedimentary Geology 144: 335-356.
  • Fabienne Giraud, Davide Olivero, François Baudin, Stéphane Reboulet, Bernard Pittet and Olivier Proux Minor changes in surface-water fertility across the oceanic anoxic event 1d (latest Albian, SE France) evidenced by calcareous nannofossils. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) (2003) 92: 267-284.

Germany

Ireland

Italy

  • Lower Jurassic black shales in northern Italy (Oschmann/Röhl)
  • Palynology Aptian-Albian black shales, Umbria-Marche Basin
  • Bonarelli (Cenom.-Turon.) level at the Furlo section, Italy
  • Mid Cretaceous:
    Ohkouchi, N., K. Kawamura, Y. Kajiwara, E. Wada, M. Okada, T. Kanamatsu, A. Taira, 1999: Sulfur isotope records around Livello Bonarelli (northern Apennines, Italy) black shale at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary. Geology: Vol. 27, No. 6, pp. 535-538.

Malta


Norway

  • Isakesen, G. H., R. Patience, G. van Graas, A. I. Jenssen (2002): Hydrocarbon system analysis in a rift basin with mixed marine and nonmarine source rocks: The South Viking Graben, North Sea. AAPG Bull. 86: 557-591.

 

Russia

  • Boucsein, B., J. Knies, R. Stein (2002): Organic matter deposition along the Kara and Laptev Sea continental margin (eastern Arctic Ocean) during last degalciation and Holocene: evidence from organic-geochemical and petrographical data. Marine Geology 183: 67-87.

 

Spain

  • Carbonate platform drowning and oceanic anoxic events on a mid-Cretaceous carbonate platform, South-Central Pyrenees, Spain

 

Switzerland

Turkey

  • H. Caner, O. Algan (2002): Palynology of sapropelic layers from the Marmara Sea
    Marine Geology, 190: 35-46.
  • L. Tolun, M.N. Cagatay, W.J. Carrigan (2002): Organic geochemistry and origin of Late Glacial-Holocene sapropelic layers and associated sediments in Marmara Sea. Marine Geology, 190: 47-60

United Kingdom

  • Upper Carboniferous:
    Fisher, Q. J., P. B. Wignall (2001): Palaeoenvironmental controls on the uranium distribution in an Upper Carboniferous black shale (Gastrioceras listeri Marine Band) and associated strata; England. Chemical Geology 175: 605-621.

  • Lower Jurassic black shales at Whitby
  • The Kimmeridge Clay at Kimmeridge Bay and along the Dorset Coast (by Ian West)
  • Introduction to the Kimmeridge Clay (UK)
  • Lower + Upper Jurassic:
    Sælen, G., R. V. Tyson, M. R. Talbot, N. Telnæs, 1998: Evidence of recycling of isotopically light CO2 (aq) in stratified black shale basins: Contrasts between the Whitby Mudstone and Kimmeridge Clay formations, United Kingdom. Geology: Vol. 26, No. 8, pp. 747-750.
  • R. Bucefalo Palliani, E. Mattioli, J.B. Riding (2002): The response of marine phytoplankton and sedimentary organic matter to the early Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) oceanic anoxic event in northern England. Marine Micropaleontology, 46: 223-245

  • Mid Cretaceous:
    Keller, G., Q. Han, T. Adatte, S. J. Burns (2001): Palaeoenvironment of the Cenomanian-Turonian transition at eastbourne, England. Cretaceous Research 22: 391-422.
  • J.-F. Deconinck, S. P. Hesselbo, N. Debuisser, O. Averbuch, F. Baudin and J. Bessa (2003): Environmental controls on clay mineralogy of an Early Jurassic mudrock (Blue Lias Formation, southern England). Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch), 92: 255-266.

 

AFRICA

North Africa

A number of organic-rich horizons exist in the Phanerozoic of North Africa, which often can be found in many places across the continent. For the Saharan Platform the Lower Silurian and Upper Devonian black ("hot") shales represent the most important hydrocarbon source rocks. Both units reach TOC values of up to 15% and thicknesses of strata >1% TOC partly exceed 200m, especially in the Frasnian.
Also the Lower Jurassic (Liassic) is organically rich in places, e.g. in Morocco Offshore and the Egyptian Western Desert. Cretaceous strata is organically rich especially in the Cenomanian-Turonian and Campanian and has sourced hydrocarbons in Northern Algeria and Tunisia, the Sirte Basin and the Egyptian Abu Gharadig Basin.
Cenozoic source rocks occur in Offshore Tunisia (Eocene Bou Dabbous Formation) and in the Gulf of Suez Rift (Miocene). Plio-Pleistocene organic-rich strata is a prolific source for rich gas reserves discovered in the Nile Delta.

 

Atlantic Ocean

Wagner, T. (2002): Late Cretaceous to early Quaternary organic sedimentation
in the eastern Equatorial Atlantic. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology 179 (1-2): 113-147.

Eastern Mediterranean

D. Menzel, E.C. Hopmans, P.F. van Bergen, J.W. de Leeuw, J.S. Sinninghe
Damste (2002): Development of photic zone euxinia in the eastern Mediterranean Basin
during deposition of Pliocene sapropels. Marine Geology 189: pp 215-226

Morocco


Algeria

 

Tunisia

 

ASIA

China (PR)

India

  • Permian-Triassic boundary anoxia in the Indian Himalyas
  • Banerjee, A., S. Pahari, M. Jha, A. K. Sinha, A. K. Jain, N. Kumar, N. J. Thomas, K. N. Misra, K. Chandra (2002): The effective source rocks in the Cambay basin, India. AAPG Bull. 86 (3): 433-456.

Jordan

AUSTRALIA / PACIFIC OCEAN

 

ANTARCTICA