Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Drilling Project: an Overview

The Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Drilling Project was begun in 1991 under the auspices of the U.S. Continental Scientific Drilling Program. It was intended to be a multidisciplinary study of Cretaceous carbonate and silicicl.tic rocks in cores from bore holes along a transect across the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. The study focuses on middle Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Campanian) strata that include, in ascending order, Graneros Shale, Greenhorn Formation, Carlile Shale, and Niobrara Formation. The transect includes cores from western Kans., eastern Colorado, and eastern Utah. The rocks grade from pelagic carbonates containing organic-carbon-rich source rocks at the eastern end of the transect to nearshore coalbearing units at the western end. These cores provide unweathered samples and the continuous depositional record required for geochemical, mineralogical, and biostratigraphic studies. The project combines biostratigraphic, paleoecological, geochemical, mineralogical, and high-resolution geophysical logging studies conducted by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Amoco Production Company, and six universities.