Logging data are measurements of physical properties of the formation surrounding a borehole, acquired in situ after completion of coring (wireline logging) or during drilling (Logging-While-Drilling, LWD). The range of data (resistivity, gamma radiation, velocity, density, borehole images,…) in any hole depends on the scientific objectives and operational constraints.

The interactions between the sand-rich Orinoco turbidite system and the compressional structures of the Barbados prism have been active since Eocene time as illustrated by the study of outcrops onshore Barbados Island. Because of strong morphologic and tectonic control, the present-day Orinoco turbiditic pattern system does not exhibit a classic fan geometry. The sea-floor geometry between the slope of the front of the Barbados prism and the slope of the South-American margin induces the convergence of the turbidite channels toward the abyssal plain, at the front of the accretionary prism. Whereas in most passive margins the turbidite systems are organized upstream to downstream as canyon, channel-levee and lobes, here, due to the tectonic control, it is organized as channel-levee, canyons and channelized lobes. At the edge of the Orinoco platform, the system has multiple sources with several distributaries and downstream the channel courses are complex with frequent convergences or divergences. While erosion processes are almost absent on the highly subsiding Orinoco platform and in the upper part of the turbidite system, they develop mostly between 2000 and 4000 m of water depth, above the Barbados prism. In the abyssal plain, the main turbiditic channel develops toward the east and connects with the Vidal mid-Atlantic channel. The sediments transported in this channel are filling elongated basins linked with fracture zones (notably the Barracuda Basin), and finally end their course in the Puerto-Rico trench. The turbidite sediments above the accretionary prism and in the abyssal plain are mostly coarse sandy deposits covered by recent pelagic planktonic-rich sediments. Stratigraphic modelling suggests that during the last glacial event, the main depocentres were located in the abyssal plain and that, during the Holocene eustatic rise, a large accommodation space formed on the shelf confining sedimentation mostly on the Orinoco platform. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The cenozoic sediments cover of western central Atlantic oceanic floor was cored at about 5 000 m depth, close to the deformation front of the Barbados Accretionary Prism. Good preservation of sedimentary structures and high recovery rate allowed the recognition and study of hemipelagic calcareous or siliceous clays and muds, with or without interbedded airfall volcanic ash beds, and with or without interbedded coarser deposits coming from lateral inputs. The latters are either calcareous fine-grained turbidites coming from local shallower oceanic areas, or terrigenous and calcareous (more hypothetical) contourites (reworking turbidites) related to bottom currents running along the South-America margin. Fluid-escape veinstructures, related to dewatering process - upward, vertical to almost horizontal advection - were identified, especially in relation with the beginning of offscraping stress in early Miocene incipient décollementhorizon. Twenty-four color print photos of splitted cores are presented; the macroscopic features they show are commented and discussed. La couverture sédimentaire cénozoïque du plancher océanique de l'Atlantique Central occidental a été carottée à environ 5000 m de profondeur, à proximité du front de déformation du prisme d'accrétion de la Barbade. Une bonne préservation des structures sédimentaires et un taux de récupération élevé ont permis la reconnaissance et l'étude d'argilites et shales hémipélagiques, calcaires ou siliceuses, localement intercalées de lits de cendres volcaniques, et auxquelles s'ajoutent des niveaux plus grossiers attribués à des apports latéraux. Ces derniers consistent, soit en turbidites calcareuses à grain fin provenant de hauts-fonds océaniques proches, soit en (plus hypothétiques) contourites calcareuses et terrigènes (remaniant des turbidites) attribuées à l'activité de courants profonds longeant la marge sud-américaine. Des veinesd'échappement de fluides - advection verticale ascendante, à presque horizontale - ont été identifiées, particulièrement en relation avec la naissance des contraintes d' offscrapingau sein des sédiments Miocène inférieur, siège du futur décollement. Vingt-quatre photographies couleurs de carottes sont présentées; les structures macroscopiques qu'elles montrent sont commentées et discutées.

Le profil ECORS-Nord de la France, implanté sur la bordure nord-ouest du bassin Parisien, ne traverse pas celui-ci dans sa région de subsidence maximale. Il apporte néanmoins une vision générale d'un transect et permet de préciser l'histoire du Bassin. Nous retiendrons, parmi les éléments les plus intéressants : - la présence possible de petits bassins stéphaniens ou permiens dans la région de Banthelu et Marville; - la structuration jurassique à éocène le long des grands accidents que sont les failles de la Seine, du Bray et de la Somme; - l'histoire de la subsidence de la bordure nord-ouest du Bassin. The Nord de la Francedeep seismic profile has been shot on the northwestern edge of the Paris Basin, about 100 km away from its main subsiding center. It is, however, the first regional line crossing the basin and some details of its geological history have been emphasized: (a) Stephanian or Permian basins with restricted sizes have been encountered below the Mesozoic cover along some parts of the line. Their location has been made possible by the simultaneous use of seismic refraction and reflection data. (b) 3 major faults have been crossed: the Seine, Bray and Somme faults. All of them had normal displacements in Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous times. This is clearly observed today through differences in sedimentary thicknesses on both sides of the faults. The Seine and Bray faults were reactivated as transcurrent and/or reverse faults in Eocene time during the north-south oriented Pyreneanshortening. This tectonic event has led to slight inversions of the basin between these 2 faults. (c) The subsidence history of the basin has been computed along the seismic line. The total tectonic subsidence was very small in Mesozoic times (500-400 m). A slight increase in subsidence in the Upper Jurassic is correlated with the Cimmerian rifting which is well known in the North Sea.

Subsurface sediment mobilization in SE Caribbean occurs in a context of plate boundary between the Caribbean plate and the South American plate, at the junction between the Barbados accretionary prism and the transform system of the northern Venezuela. Within this compressional and transpressional system, a several hundred kilometres-long active belt of mud volcanoes and shale diapirs develops from the Barbados tectonic wedge to the thrust belt of Northern Venezuela (Figure 1). In this system, the mud volcanoes of Trinidad and Venezuela are only the emerged part of a widely developed phenomenon in the offshore area of the Barbados prism (especially in its southern part). This has been notably spectacularly evidenced by the recent results of the CARAMBA survey of the O/V ATALANTE in 2002 (Figures 2 and 3).

The Circum-Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean has long been one of the world's most important petroleum provinces, as well as one of the world's most geologically complex regions. These two characteristics have resulted in an extensive amount of ongoing research by both industry and academia. AAPG Memoir 79, The Circum-Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, is the first volume in more than a decade to document such a wide range of research on the geology of this vast area. Of the total 44 papers, roughly two-thirds pertain to the Gulf of Mexico, with an emphasis on the Mexican portion of the basin, and to the petroliferous areas of the southern Caribbean, including Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago. The remaining papers relate to the Antilles and Central America, as well as a series of papers that address region-wide topics such as plate tectonic evolution. A significant number of papers were contributed by authors from national oil companies and universities from within the region.

The recent evolution of ideas on the Mediterranean region has been triggered by very active data acquisition over the last 15 years. Seismic tomography provides an unique view of mantle heterogeneities, space geodesy leads to precise determinations of the present strain and velocity fields, the combination of structural geology, radiometric dating and metamorphic petrology allows the description of P-T-t-D paths of exhumed metamorphic rocks, and exploration geophysics, onshore and offshore, gives a detailed view of the crustal geometry. Extension started in the Gulf of Lion and propagated eastwards and southwestwards to form the Liguro-Provençal basin, Tyrrhenian Sea and the Alboran Sea. It also started, at much the same time, in the Panonnian basin as well as in the Aegean back-arc region. Thus a seminal event occurred some 30 Ma ago that produced a sharp change from overall compression to back-arc extension. Although gravitational forces due to the collapse of a thick crust have affected most basins, it is now almost certain that this event ultimately originated in the mantle, either by slab detachment, slab rollback or both processes acting in sequence.

The Southeast Basin of France is the thickest onshore French sedimentary basin which contains locally as much as 10 km of Mesozoic-Cenozoic sediment. Basin development occurred in several stages between late Carboniferous and late Cretaceous times. Partial tectonic inversion took place during two compressive events, the so-called 'Pyrenean' and 'Alpine' phases of late Cretaceous-early Tertiary and late Tertiary ages respectively. They are separated by an intervening stretching event of Oligocene age, which further south resulted in the opening of the western Mediterranean oceanic basin. As a result of this complex tectonic history, structural traps were difficult to image on the seismic data shot during the first phase of exploration prior to 1980. Oil and gas natural seeps, and shows in several wells, indicate that some petroleum systems are, or have been active, at least in some places.The present erosional western margin of the basin is more or less superimposed on the initial Triassic-Jurassic margin. Margin subsidence and Tertiary inversion are discussed using regional sections on which the polyphase history of the entire basin is well shown. These sections are located on three major segments where the Mesozoic margin is either partly preserved (Ardeche), or has been partly inverted in late Tertiary times (Vercors-Chartreuse), or has been completely inverted in early Tertiary times (Corbieres-eastern Pyrenees). 1-D 'Genex' basin modelling on the Ardeche segment, and 2-D 'Thrustpack' structural-maturity modelling in the Vercors-Chartreuse segment are used to further assess the remaining petroleum plays. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

The cast-west trending Pyrenees-Provence thrust belt developed from late Cretaceous to early Tertiary times in response to the north-south convergence of the Iberian and European plates. Post-tectonic sedimentary basins started developing in late Eocene times over the eastern half of the belt in response to the rifting and opening of the Western Mediterranean oceanic basin.

Two major onshore sedimentary basins of Mesozoic age in France, the Paris and Aquitaine basins, have been intensively explored for about 40 years and contain a significant amount of hydrocarbons which presently still accounts for 4% of oil and 10% of gas for French domestic needs. Nevertheless, other Mesozoic basins are also present in the southeastern part of France, in front of the Alpine and Provincial Tertiary thrust belts. The level of activity here is presently very low, as the first phases of exploration in the 1950s to 1970s have been rather disappointing. In order to attract new players in these frontier area the French public authorities have decided to slightly modify the policy of license attributions. Among other aspects the new policy will include: (1) a simplification of the investigation procedure related to exploration licenses by suppression of the initial public inquiry; (2) an improvement of the transparency during the awarding of mining rights, by indicating the criteria that will be required for the selecting of the petitioner; and (3) a relaxing of regulations. The paper describes the geology of S.E. France, early exploration, seismic surveys, the Jura thrust belt, Bresse basin, the Vercors-Chartreuse, Southeast basin, and Carbieres zone.