MilankovitchCycles: Origin, Recognition, Applications inCyclostratigraphy and the study of Petroleum Systems

Abstract

In addition to the rotational and translational movements, The Earth exhibits other minor, though imperceptible, movements with consequences on the climatic change undergone during the geological past. Milankovitch in 1941 published a connection between the movements of precession, obliquity and eccentricity with the great climatic changes and glaciations. Each of the orbital movements presents a periodicity, detectable by means of geological or geochemical data. However, later processes in the sediment (e.g.diagenesis, overlapping cyclic patterns or the so-call edlithological noise, affect the accurate detection of Milankovitch cycles. Once the orbital patterns are established in the sedimentary record of a basin, this cyclos tratigraphic toolis very suitablein lithological and temporal correlations, demonstrating the use fulness in the analysis of source-and reservoir rocks of oil wit hin the petroleum system.