A Look Back…75 years:

Seventy five years ago, systematic studies of sedimentary rocks were still in their infancy.  John Cedric Griffiths (1947) made the observation that “little advance in the application of sedimentary petrography to the oil industry has been made to date.”  Griffiths reviewed possible applications, including “thin slice analysis,” and “classification of sediments,” and that these could be used to understand “genesis, diagenesis, sedimentation, and palaeogeography.”  His review concluded with the optimistic suggestion that “investigations within this field [sedimentary petrography] could offer great assistance in exploration for new oil pools.”  (April 1947)


Sedimentary petrography and the oil industry by John Cedric Griffiths