The JAPEX/JNOC/GSC Mallik 2L-38 gas hydrate research well was drilled in February and March, 1998, in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada, to a depth of 1150 m. The scientific program was conducted through a collaborative agreement between the
Japan National Oil Corporation and the Geological Survey of Canada with key participation by the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company and the United States Geological Survey. A primary objective of the well was to undertake a comprehensive scientific research program to study an arctic gas hydrate
accumulation. Field research conducted as part of the Mallik 2L-38 program included collection of permafrost and gas-hydrate-bearing core samples, downhole geophysical logging, and a vertical seismic profile survey. Laboratory and modelling studies undertaken during the field program, and
subsequently as part of a post-field research program, documented the sedimentology, biostratigraphy, physical/petrophysical properties, pore-water and gas geochemistry, geophysics, and reservoir characteristics of the Mallik field gas hydrate accumulation.
On 25 December 2001, fieldwork began on a new gas hydrate research well program at the northeastern edge of the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada (Figure 1, top). The Mallik research well program of 2001–2002 will drill a 1200‐m deep main production research well, and, for the first time, two 1150‐m‐deep scientific observation wells offset 40 m from the main well (Figure 1, bottom) for geophysical monitoring of the main well. The science and engineering objectives are to assess the production properties of gas hydrates and determine the stability of continental gas hydrates both in terms of past climate warming events and in response to warming trends predicted by various climate change models.
Sparse occurrences of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts were recorded from the JAPEX/JNOC/GSC Mallik 2L-38 gas hydrate research well, Mackenzie Delta area, Northwest Territories, Canada. Some of the recorded taxa are indicative of a Paleocene Eocene age, while
others are considered to be of Cretaceous origin. Because the deepest parts of the section are correlated to the Oligocene Kugmallit Sequence, all the dinoflagellate cysts are interpreted to be reworked. According to this interpretation, the total absence of in situ marine dinoflagellate cysts
suggests that the studied samples were deposited under nonmarine conditions, most likely within a fluvial system.
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