See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: The Gulf of Mexico as a Geologic Laboratory: Making New Links in Depositional Systems from the Coastal Plain to Deep Water
Abstract:
Evaporation would have far exceeded rainfall and runoff into the isolated basin, thereby lowering the Gulf by ~2,000 meters within a few thousand years. The release of hydrocarbon gases from hydrates and disrupted thermogenic reservoirs may have triggered the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
The barrier was breached after about 1 Ma when Cuba moved to the east relative to Yucatán. A deep erosional thalweg in the eastern Gulf formed during rapid refill of the basin.
Little information has been released to either support or condemn this idea since it was first proposed in 2003, possibly because of the difficulty of communicating among U.S., Cuban and Mexican investigators. Moreover, the petroleum companies working in these areas have been reluctant to release information of a confidential nature. In spite of these obstacles, we believe that the idea merits dedicated investigation by industry and academic scientists.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: The Gulf of Mexico as a Geologic Laboratory: Making New Links in Depositional Systems from the Coastal Plain to Deep Water