Sequence Stratigraphy

Lithostratigraphy vs. chronostratigraphy

Backlap

An offlap geometry is displayed by those sedimentary units (strata) whose upper ends are moved progressively toward the sea and where the most recent leaves exposed part of the older units on which it rests.

The concept of sediment accommodation space describes the amount of space that is available for sediments to fill, and it is measured by the distance between base level and the depositional surface. It is the product of relative sea level changes that, in turn, is function of eustasy (absolute sea-level change) and vertical tectonic movements (subsidence and uplift).

Fundamental parametres controlling the internal architecture of depositional sequences:

1) Rate of change of accommodation space (eustacy + subsidence
or uplift)

2) Sediment supply (sedimentation rates) 3) Basin fisiography

Cicli di Milankovitch
Le interazioni gravitazionali della Terra con il Sole, la Luna e gli altri pianeti del sistema solare producono perturbazioni quasi periodiche della forma dellorbita terrestre e nella pendenza dellasse di rotazione. Tali perturbazioni influiscono sulla distribuzione globale, stagionale e latitudinaria del riscaldamento solare. Le oscillazioni climatiche imposte dai parametri orbitali sono registrate nel record sedimentario attraverso cambi nelle caratteristiche dei sedimenti, delle comunit fossili e nelle caratteristiche chimiche.

Eccentricity from -1200 kyr to -0 kyr (La90) 0.07 0.06

eccentricity

Obliquity from -1200 kyr to -0 kyr (La90) 25 24.5 24 23.5 23 22.5 22 21.5 0 200 400 600 Age (in kyr) 800 1000 1200

Precession - Eccentricity -1200 to 0 kyr (La90)

precession / eccentricity

0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 -0.02 -0.04 -0.06 -0.08 0 200 400 600 Age (in kyr) 800 1000 1200

0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 0 200 400 600 Age (in kyr) 800 1000 1200
obliquity

A depositional sequence is defined as: A relatively conformable succession of genetically related strata bounded by subaerial unconformities or their correlative conformities. The critical part of this definition is that sequences are bounded above and below by subaerial unconformities, or by correlative conformities, that is, surfaces that correlate updip to a subaerial unconformity. A subaerial unconformity is a surface formed through subaerial exposure and erosion, and includes features formed by downcutting rivers, soil processes, and karst processes.

Gli ordini fondamentali delle variazioni del livello del mare nel Fanerozoico (Fulthorpe, 1991)
Ordine 1st 2nd Durata oltre 100 Ma 5-100 Ma Ampiezza fino a 500 m fino a 5000 m Causa dominante Variazione del volume dei bacini oceanici Subsidenza termotettonica

3rd
4th 5th 6th 7th infra-7th

1-5 Ma
0,3-0,6 Ma circa 100 Ka circa 40 Ka circa 20 Ka <20 Ka

fino a 200 m ?
fino a 30 m ? 100-130 m 30-100 m fino a circa 50 m fino a circa 30 m

Eustasia/tettonica
Eustasia/tettonica Glacio-eustasia (eccentricit dellorbita) Glacio-eustasia (obliquit dellasse terrestre) Glacio-eustasia (precessione) Eustasia/apporto sedimentario

Sequence Boundary

Lowstand Systems Tract (basin floor fan)

Existing Depositional Models of Deep-Water Fans.

Johnson et al., 2001

Laingsburg Fan A
Unit 5

Unit 2

Unit 3

Stratigraphic Hierarchy Complexes. Fan 3 Karoo.

Storey

Complex: comprised of stacked storey sets, and identified by major stacking pattern shifts Complex Boundary: represents a significant, regional avulsion surface

Storey Set Complex

Tanqua lobe exposures

Slope to shelf-edge
Unit 5

Fan 4

Fan 3

Laga Formation, Italy

Lowstand Systems Tract

(prograding lowstand wedge)

Transgressive Systems Tract

Beach Sea level after rise

b

Initial sea level

S

Bottom profile after sealevel rise

Initial bottom profile

b

b=b S=S

Movimento teorico del profilo dello shoreface in risposta a un innalzamento relativo del livello del mare di magnitudo S. Man mano che la spiaggia sottoposta ad erosione (distanza R), il materiale rimosso (b) spostato offshore a riempire il nuovo accommodation space generato nella parte interna della piattaforma (b). Questa la legge di Bruun.

Limiting depth between predominant nearshore and offshore material

t3

Shoreline

(a) Sea-level rise

t1
S.L.3 S.L.2 S.L.1 Increasing Erosion accommodation

t2

Ravinement surface Onlap wedge of transgressive sediments

t3

T 2

t1

Transgressive surface of erosion (ravinement surface)

Interfluves: Away from the incised valleys the former highstand delta and shelf become sub-aerially exposed. This exposure leads to the formation of extensive and distinctive welldrained palaeosols Directly overlain by a transgressive, flooding surface (IFS)

Incised-valley Fill (TST)

Highstand Systems Tract

Increasing accommodation

Shoreline

(a) Sea-level rise

S.L.3 S.L.2 S.L.1 Increasing accommodation

t2 t1

t3

Forced Regressive Systems Tract

(or Falling Stage Systems Tract)

Fluvial and shoreface processes in response to the forced regression of the shoreline in a shelf-type setting modified from Bruun (1962); Plint (1988); Dominguez and Wanless (1991)). The shoreface profile is preserved during the forced regression via a combination of coeval sedimentation and erosion processes in the upper and lower shoreface respectively. The formation of the regressive surface of marine erosion requires the gradient of the sea floor to be shallower than the shoreface equilibrium profile. This is often the case in shelf-type settings. In ramp settings, where the gradient of the sea floor is steeper than the shoreface equilibrium profile, the offlapping shoreface clinoforms may prograde without erosion in the lower shoreface (Gilbert-type deltas). Note that the regressive surface of marine erosion may rework the basal surface of forced regression. The earliest falling stage shoreface deposits are gradationally based, where a conformable basal surface of forced regression is preserved.

Shoreline

(b) Sea-level fall

t3
Increasing accommodation Erosion S.L.1 S.L.2 S.L.3

t1 t2
Subaerial regressive surface of erosion (sequence boundary)

Regressive surface of marine erision Dowlap wedge of regressive shoreface sediments

t1 t2 t3

Fluvial and shoreface processes in response to the forced regression of the shoreline in a shelf-type setting. The shoreface profile is preserved during the forced regression via a combination of coeval sedimentation and erosion processes in the upper and lower shoreface respectively. The formation of the regressive surface of marine erosion requires the gradient of the sea floor to be shallower than the shoreface equilibrium profile. This is often the case in shelf-type settings.

Sequence general organization

Diagramma di Wheeler