CHAPTER 6

STRATIGRAPHY
AND METHODS OF DATING

Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy is the study of the spatial and temporal arrangement of geological formations and
the events they materialize, in order to reconstruct the history of the earth and its various states at
different geological epochs.
Stratigraphy is an important discipline for petroleum research because its results are essential to
try to predict from given and dispersed data (outcrops, drilling) the position in depth of
formations.

1. Stratification

The sedimentary grounds appear, because of their mode of formation (mainly marine), like a
stack of units which on the outcrops give them an aspect often well tuned on thicknesses and
durations sometimes considerable (case of the great canyon of Colorado where approximately
3,000 m of sediments represents approximately 2 billion years of continuous deposits). They are
said to be stratified, that is to say formed of strata (the term layer is substantially synonymous
with strata).
A stratum is a continuous and homogeneous sedimentary deposit. The area of separation between
two layers is called the lamination surface.
The thickness of the strata is extremely variable, from a few centimeters to several meters or tens
of meters. They can continue regularly without any significant change in their nature and
thickness over very long distances (tens of kilometers or more).

2. Lithostratigraphic units

The stratum is a unit usually too small in thickness, usually too discontinuous laterally. Other
larger units have been defined.

2.1 Formation

This is the basic unit of stratigraphy. Formation is a set of strata or sedimentary layers. It is
defined geographically by a place name where it has been recognized and described for the first
time. It presents a sum of lithological and paleontological characters.

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2.2 Séquence
This is another fundamental unit of stratigraphy. A sedimentary deposit is not necessarily
homogeneous in its lithology, it can present a succession of terms which are connected and
superimposed without major interruption of sedimentation forming a sequence.
For example, a series beginning with coarse sandstones and gradually moving to finer sandstones
and then to silts and clays is a sequence.

3- Stratigraphic discontinuities and disconformities

Lamination surfaces and layering joints, sequence or formation boundaries marked by changes in
the nature of the deposit are minor stratigraphic discontinuities; they generally correspond to
periods without short-term deposits.
There is angular unconformity (angular discordance) if on both sides of the discontinuity
surface, the layers are no longer parallel but form an angle between them.

4- Dating of the layers

Two methods are used:

• radiochronology or absolute dating,
• the relative chronology.

The chronology by absolute dating is the most interesting, but the methods are often difficult to
implement, especially in sedimentary formations. It is more convenient to use a relative timeline.
Both methods do not replace but complement each other.

The stratigraphic scale currently used is mainly based on relative chronology, but it needs
absolute dating to determine the age of the different events that have occurred on the surface of
the globe.

4.1 Radiochronology - Absolute dating of the rock

The radioactive elements present in the minerals disintegrate by giving new radiogenic elements.

Knowing the disintegration period of an element and the amount of radioactive element present
in a mineral, one can calculate the time elapsed since the crystallization of the mineral that fixed
the radioactive element.

Only a few elements are usable: they must be quite widespread, relatively easy to measure, of
disintegration period neither too long nor too short. Three methods are commonly used:

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 • Carbon 14, which has a period of 5730 years; it can only be used for recent formations
(recent Quaternary, archeology).
• The Potassium - Argon method : Potassium, which is a relatively common element in the
different minerals of the rocks, has a period of 1.3 billion years and is transformed into
argon.
• The Rubidium - Strontium method : with a period of 49 billion years for rubidium.
Rubidium is a relatively common element in silicates, it can substitute for potassium.

In sedimentary rocks, dating provides the age of the original rock minerals and not the age of the
sedimentary rock one is attempting to date.

4.2 Relative chronology

The establishment of a relative chronology is based on the application of two principles, the
principle of superposition and the principle of continuity:
• The superposition principle mentions that a layer is older than that which covers it and
more recent than that which it covers.
By making a cut in a quiet region, where the layers are in normal position and little folded,
the vertical succession of the lithological units provides a local stratigraphy.
• The principle of continuity mentions that the same sedimentary layer or the same set of
layers are of the same age throughout their whole extent.

The application of these principles makes it possible to draw lithological correlations between
several local sections, even if the thicknesses vary, to establish a lithostratigraphy and to map the
different formations.

Paleontology, which studies the remains of fossilized organisms in the ground, makes it possible
to complete the information and/or to determine the relative age of the various sedimentary
layers. This dating is based on the fact that two strata containing fossils of the same species with
the same stage of evolution are of the same age.

Paleontology by comparing the different fossil forms encountered in sedimentary terrains has
managed to establish a relatively fine and reliable stratigraphic chronology. The position in time
and life span of most animal and plant species are currently known. The presence of one of them
makes it possible to date the ground which encloses them.

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The Geological Time

For us, time, an abstract notion, materializes most often through the second hand of the clock
that marks the seconds, the minutes or the hours, the calendar which indicates the days, the
months, the years. In geology, time is most often materialized by a sequence of rocks, like this
stack of layers clearly visible on the walls of the Grand Canyon of Colorado.

This stack materializes the geological time: deposition time of a first succession of layers,
metamorphism of these layers leading to the formation of a massive metamorphic rock, uplift
and long period of erosion of this massif concretized by a discordance, deposit of a second
succession of sedimentary layers, then recent erosion of the upper layers and which is
responsible for the geological spectacle that offers us today the Grand Canyon.

This section highlights the angular unconformity between the metamorphic rock mass and the
sequence of sedimentary rocks overlying it. This unconformity represents a long period of
erosion (several hundred million years).

The section still shows part of the sedimentary sequence above the angular unconformity. In this
sequence, there are several other minor unconformities expressed by an absence of deposits
corresponding to given periods of time or by erosion (gully surfaces).

Sedimentary rocks indicates the time taken by sediments to settle. The intrusive rocks represent
more punctual events, shorter time. Gully surfaces or unconformities also represent time, but
time when deposits have been eroded. Such a succession constitutes the archives of the
geological historian of the earth. The Grand Canyon sequence represents 2.5 billion years of
history here.

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Today, we can advance this number with certainty, but it took a long time before we developed
and refined the dating methods, and finally developed a reliable geological calendar on which we
can input the events decrypted in the rocks. The methods of dating were first relative
(crosscutting relationship or overlaps, disconformities, fossils) before being "absolute"
(radiometry).

The relative dating

As the term indicates, these methods make it possible to establish the age of the layers or the
geological bodies with respect to each other. In other words, it will be established which,
between two geological bodies, is the youngest or the oldest, without any connotation of absolute
age that would be expressed in number of years. There are two main groups of relative dating
methods: physical methods and palaeontological methods.

Physical methods of relative dating

A first concept of relative dating was presented in 1669 by a Danish physicist, Nicolas Steno.
These are the principle of the primary horizontality of the sedimentary layers and the principle
superposition.

Simplistic, perhaps, but it is not always obvious, in layers folded vertically or spilled, reversed
and even lying down by orogenic movements (formation of mountain chains), what is the
meaning of the original superimposition and therefore which layers are the oldest and which are
the youngest.

In 1830, Charles Lyell proposed, in his remarkable book "The Principles of Geology", a second
concept of relative dating of the geological layers, the rule of crosscutting relationship
(overlapping): a rocky body that intersects another is necessarily younger than the one that it
cuts.

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Simplistic again, but fundamental. These observations are made at all scales, at a small outcrop
of a few square meters, up to a level of several tens of square kilometers.

It was at the beginning of the 19th century that we realized the importance of recognizing very
particular structures in the succession of rocks, disconformities, to establish relative dating. Two
main types of unconformities are recognized: erosion unconformity and angular unconformity.

a) Erosion unconformity (Erosion Discordance): the example below illustrates what is meant by
this type of unconformity.

This irregular surface between igneous rock and sedimentary rock, in the example above, is an
erosion unconformity.

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In the preceding examples, the geological time is represented by the deposition time of the layers
or by the introduction of intrusions which represent short events in time. Here, the erosion
unconformity also represents geological time, but the time when, not only was there no
deposition, but there was erosion, removal of deposition.

b) Angular unconformity (Angular Discordance): The following example illustrates in sequence

how such a disconformity is formed.

As in the previous case, this disconformity represents geological time, here, all the time of
folding and erosion.

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