BASIC PRINCIPLES OF STRATIGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Definitions
• Sedimentology = the study of the processes of formation, transport and deposition of
material which accumulates as sediment in continental and marine environments and
eventually forms sedimentary rocks
• Stratigraphy = the study of rocks to determine the order and timing of events in Earth
history
• Sedimentary geology  sedimentology + stratigraphy
Sequence stratigraphy = the analysis of genetically related depositional units bounded by
unconformities and their correlative conformities

Introduction

Historical development of sedimentary geology and key concepts

• Principle of superposition (Nicolas Steno, 1669)
• Uniformitarianism (“the present is the key to the past”) (James Hutton and Charles
Lyell, late 18th to early 19th century)
• Stratigraphy developed already around 1800
• Sedimentology is a relatively new discipline (1960s and 1970s)
• Late 1980s and 1990s: revival of stratigraphy (sequence stratigraphy)
Temporal and spatial scales
• Sedimentology focuses primarily on facies and depositional environments (how were
sediments/sedimentary rocks formed?)
• Smaller temporal and spatial scales
• Stratigraphy focuses on the larger scale strata and Earth history (when and where were
sediments/sedimentary rocks formed?)
• Larger temporal and spatial scales

Figure 1: Schematic presentation of depositional environments

SEDIMENTOLOGY – CONCEPTS
Fluid flow and bedforms
• Unidirectional flow leads predominantly to asymmetric bedforms (two - or three -
dimensional) or plane beds
• Current ripples
• Dunes
• Plane beds
• Antidunes

Figure 2: Developments of countercurrents in lee of bedform

Figure 3: Schematic presentations of natural landforms as a result of fluid flow

Figure 4:
• Oscillatory flow due to waves causes predominantly symmetric bedforms (wave ripples)
Figure 5: Oscillation flow towards the formation of wave ripples
• Combined flow involves both modes of sediment transport and causes low-relief
mounds and swales
SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES
• Planar stratification is primarily the product of aggrading plane beds
• Cross stratification is formed by aggrading bedforms
• Planar and trough cross stratification are the result of straight-crested (2D) and linguoid
(3D) bedforms, respectively
Figure 6: Schematic presentation of stratifications in sedimentary rocks
Figure 7: Schematic presentations of flow direction of fluid forming laminated landforms

Figure 8: Bedsets in swells and humocks

• Planar and trough cross stratification are the result of straight-crested (2D) and linguoid
(3D) bedforms, continued
• Small-scale cross stratification (current ripples)
• Large-scale cross stratification (dunes)
• Wave cross stratification (wave ripples)
• Hummocky cross stratification (mounds and swales)
• A single unit of cross-stratified material is known as a set; multiple stacked sets of similar
nature form co-sets
Figure 9: Cross-stratified materials as sets and co-sets
FACIES CONCEPT

• The facies concept refers to the sum of characteristics of a sedimentary unit, commonly at
a fairly small (cm-m) scale
• Lithology
• Grain size
• Sedimentary structures
• Color
• Composition
• Biogenic content
Types of facies
• Lithofacies (physical and chemical characteristics)
• Biofacies (macrofossil content)
• Ichnofacies (trace fossils)
• Facies analysis is the interpretation of strata in terms of depositional environments (or
depositional systems), commonly based on a wide variety of observations
• Facies associations constitute several facies that occur in combination, and typically
represent one depositional environment (note that very few individual facies are diagnostic
for one specific setting!)
• Facies successions (or facies sequences) are facies associations with a characteristic vertical
order
• Walther’s Law (1894) states that two different facies found superimposed on one another
and not separated by an unconformity, must have been deposited adjacent to each other
at a given point in time
Figure 10: Infill lacustrine facies development for depositional analysis
Standardized facies codes have been proposed (e.g., by Andrew Miall), but they are frequently
criticized. However the ones by him are presented below in a table.
• Sedimentary logs are one-dimensional representations of vertical sedimentary
successions
Figure 11: Bouma chanel sequence log
• Architectural elements are the two- or three-dimensional (2D/3D) ‘building blocks’ of a
sediment or a sedimentary rock
• The three-dimensional arrangement of architectural elements is known as sedimentary
architecture
• Since the 1970s, facies analysis has evolved from a focus on one-dimensional data to
three-dimensional data (architectural-element analysis, 3D seismic), recognizing that
individual sedimentary logs can rarely provide detailed environmental interpretations

Figure 12: 3D seismic data showing seismic facies