SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY AND CONODONT PALEOECOLOGY OF THE LOWER DUPEROW FORMATION (UPPER DEVONIAN) IN WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA

Very little work has been done on the classic Devonian Duperow Cycles from the Williston Basin in last 20 years. This study will examine the Duperow Formation (from the subsurface of western North Dakota) to get more information on the environmental and climatic conditions of this part of North America approximately 350 million years ago. This is an important time for this area of North America because it was tropical and covered periodically by a shallow sea. The area of study in western North Dakota had deeper seas and therefore has the best sediment record of this time period. The transgression and regression of the sea can be read through the rock record, by analyzing well logs and core samples. These cores have been studied by visiting the Wilson M. Laird Core and Sample Library. It is important to understand the transgression and regressions because transgressions in the rock tell us that global climate was warming. This goes the same for regressions showing that sea level fell and climate was cooling.

After examining many cores and well logs from relative close locations, we are correlating this data over a wide spread area so we can plot the major and minor transgressions and regressions of the ocean that resulted in the deposition of the Duperow. All of this research is important because understanding the past is the key to understanding what is happening today and in the future with climate change. Another important factor of this formation is that the oil that is being drilled for in North Dakota comes from this time period. Knowing the stratigraphy is key in the economics of North Dakota as well. The stratigraphic study will provide a temporal and spatial framework for paleontological studies. This further study is also important because it is more concrete data of the climate change of the time. It will be accomplished by studying and analyzing conodonts from core samples.