Depositional processes of black shales in deep water

With deep-water exploration for and production of hydrocarbons becoming progressively more extensive and successful, it is clearly important to understand the processes of deposition and organic matter preservation of black shale source rocks in the deep sea. This short contribution aims to summarize the current state of knowledge in this area and to suggest directions for future research. Black shales are defined as generally fine-grained sediments or sedimentary rocks that contain >1% total organic carbon (TOC). Deep water in the marine environment is taken as any depth in excess of storm wave base (i.e. approximately 200 m). Much of this synthesis is based on previous work by the authors on deep-water processes (Sediment transport and depositional processes (1994) 257; Sedimentry environments, processes, facies and stratigraphy (1996) 395) and black shales (Fine grained sediments: deep-water processes and facies (1984) 527, AAPG studies in geology no. 40 (1995); Geol. Soc Spec. Publ., 26 (1987) 287), as well as on general black shale/source rock compilations (Marine petroleum,l source rocks (1987); Black shales (1994)). (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.