Stratigraphy

Sequence Stratigraphy

Sequence stratigraphy is the study of sediments and sedimentary rocks in terms of repetitively arranged facies and associated stratal geometry (Vail 1987; Van Wagoner et al 1988, 1990; Christie-Blick 1991). It is a technique that can be traced back to the work of Sloss et al (1949), Sloss (1950, 1963), and Wheeler (1958) on interregional unconformities of the North American craton, but it becam...

Stratigraphy of the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene, an informal term used to signal the impact of collective human activity on biological, physical and chemical processes on the Earth system, is assessed using stratigraphic criteria. It is complex in time, space and process, and may be considered in terms of the scale, relative timing, duration and novelty of its various phenomena. The lithostratigraphic signal includes both di...

Stratigraphy in Phylogeny Reconstruction

Beginning with this issue, the Journal of Paleontology will be publishing an occasional section entitled ‘‘View from the Field’’. ‘‘View from the Field’’ will provide a forum for concise commentary on current issues in paleontology, including but not limited to discussion of methods, important new discoveries, and major conceptual advances. Contributions should be brief (no more than 12 double-...

Stratigraphy and Relative Geochronology

Stratigraphy is the science that studies the strata, or beds, of (mainly) sedimentary rocks in order to extract from them the history of the earth’s surface. By grouping the bed successions in stratigraphic units and by studying their geometrical relationships with some simple rules, it creates the fundamental temporal relative framework necessary to understand the origin of the rock units them...

CHAPTER 5: Sequence Stratigraphy