Changes

[[file:BrokenConcretion22.jpg|thumb|400px|A broken concretion with fossils inside; Late Cretaceous Pierre shale, near Ekalaka, Montana. Photograph taken by Mark A. Wilson (Department of Geology, The College of Wooster).]]

[[file:BrokenConcretion22.jpg|thumb|400px|A broken concretion with fossils inside; Late Cretaceous Pierre shale, near Ekalaka, Montana. Photograph taken by Mark A. Wilson (Department of Geology, The College of Wooster).]]

Paleontology, the study of fossil organisms and their traces, has been used in the exploration for and exploitation of hydrocarbons since the later half of the nineteenth century. Because [http://www.archaeologywordsmith.com/lookup.php?category=&where=headword&terms=fossil+assemblage fossil assemblages] change through time, they aid in the prediction of depth to reservoirs, to casing points, and to overpressured zones. [http://www.stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2014-02.jpg Chronostratigraphic] assemblages are the basis for correlating strata among wells, across basins, and between basins. Correlation is the method for predicting the lateral continuity and physical and chronostratigraphic equivalency of strata. Fossil assemblages are also evidence of the [[depositional environments]] of the drilled [[stratum|strata]] and thus play a role in predicting the location of [[hydrocarbon reservoir|reservoir]]s, [[source rock]]s, and [[pinch-out]] of porous strata.

Paleontology, the study of fossil organisms and their traces, has been used in the exploration for and exploitation of hydrocarbons since the later half of the nineteenth century. Because [http://www.archaeologywordsmith.com/lookup.php?category=&where=headword&terms=fossil+assemblage fossil assemblages] change through time, they aid in the prediction of depth to reservoirs, to casing points, and to overpressured zones. [http://www.stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2014-02.jpg Chronostratigraphic] assemblages are the basis for correlating strata among wells, across basins, and between basins. Correlation is the method for predicting the lateral continuity and physical and chronostratigraphic equivalency of strata. Fossil assemblages are also evidence of the [[depositional environments]] of the drilled [[stratum|strata]] and thus play a role in predicting the location of [[hydrocarbon reservoir|reservoir]]s, [[source rock]]s, and [[pinch out|pinch-out]] of porous strata.

==Age and correlation of strata==

==Age and correlation of strata==