Organic geochemical studies on samples from Holes 487, 488, and 490 in the southern Mexico Middle America Trench provided an opportunity to characterize the organic fraction of the sedimentary section in an active trench environment and to project the petroleum-producing potential of the extracted lipid fractions. The samples were geologically young and of shallow burial history. Samples from Hole 487, located on the oceanic plate, range in age from late Miocene to middlelate Pleistocene. Samples from Hole 488, representing undifferentiated Quaternary sediment, were collected on the landward side of the lower trench slope. Miocene(?) to Quaternary sediments from Hole 490 were obtained from the upper slope immediately seaward of the inferred location of the continental crust.

Supplement to: Chambers, R L; Erdman, J G (1982): Elemental composition and petroleum-generating potential of the methylene chloride extracts from Leg 66 Samples. In: Watkins, JS; Casey Moore, J; et al. (eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (U.S. Govt. Printing Office), 66, 581-585