Elizabeth W. Chinn

TL;DR: White and pigmented filamentous bacterial mats dominated by several undescribed species of Beggiatoa were sampled during research submersible dives to cold hydrocarbon seep sites on the upper continental slope off Louisiana (130-550 m).

TL;DR: In this paper, fixed-NH 4 in clays from Holocene oil seep sediments in the Gulf of Mexico continental slope, offshore Louisiana, averages 0.08 wt % and increases with depth in shallow cores (420 cm), reflecting an early diagenetic trend that is apparently not influenced by migrating crude oil.

TL;DR: In this paper, electron microscopy of calcite-lined cavities provides insight to the latest stage of mineral deposition in the Damon Mound salt dome environment, where solid crude oil residues and microbes occur in association with surface minerals such as gypsum and barite.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that a more oil-prone source facies is present in marine shales of the deep Wilcox Group in southcentral Louisiana, which is consistent with geologic constraints that suggest an origin of crude oil from within the Wilcox group itself.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on some deeper carbonate cap rock characterized by more limited oxygen availability and showed that microbial sulfate reduction is associated with limited hydrocarbon biodegradation in this deeper cap rock environment.