Benthic algae as major precursors of oil-prone kerogen – A case study from the Hungarian Middle Miocene

This study is intended to clarify the depositional environment of a 180-m-thick, immature, limy Middle Miocene oil source rock interval, cored in the Zala Basin, western Hungary. For this purpose, a highly interdisciplinary approach was applied combining simple, standard micropaleontological, isotopic, and organic geochemical methods, rarely applied together. Foraminifera were studied for estimating bottom oxygenation and water depth, while nannoplankton biostratigraphy permitted for estimating the rate of sedimentation. The studied source rocks were deposited in a rather shallow sea, below well-oxygenated bottom water. The abundant epiphytic foraminiferal fauna proves that the bottom was densely inhabited by benthic algae, while the high δ13Corg (>–22‰) clearly indicates massive benthic algal contribution to the kerogen. Mass accumulation rate of the limy upper part of the NN5 nannoplankton biozone, the oil source interval included, was very high (551 t/m2/Ma). In spite of moderate productivity and good ...