|
1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK
2 Western Atlas Logging Services, 455 London Road, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 5AB, UK
In what has now become the standard model for sequence stratigraphy, a depositional sequence comprises an unconformity-bounded package of genetically related strata, whose internal geometries are influenced largely by fluctuating sea level (Fig. 1). This model evolved from regional mapping (Sloss 1963), and was later developed from seismic-reflection profiles on passive continental margins (Payton 1977). It was further extended to a higher resolution using data from the surface and subsurface in many geological settings (Mutti 1985; Wilgus et al. 1988; Van Wagoner et al. 1990). Here we do not provide a comprehensive summary of the terminology that has grown-up around sequence stratigraphy: judging by its sparse usage within the papers of this volume much of it is redundant anyway. The interested reader should refer to the reviews of Haq (1991), Vail et al. (1991), Mitchum & Van Wagoner (1991), Posamentier et al. (1992) and & James (1993) for further details. In essence, sequence stratigraphy is practised through the recognition of key surfaces which define the boundaries of packages of genetically related strata (systems tracts) and by the recognition of transgressive and regressive facies trends within those packages (Fig. 1). The model is hierarchical and, to some extent, independent of time or physical scale.
The power of the sequence stratigraphical model probably lies in its simplicity (see summary in Christie-Blick & Driscoll 1995) but many of the fundamental questions posed as a result of the early sequence stratigraphical work remain unanswered, for example the relative importance of eustasy versus more localized tectonic effects
...
This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
