Stratigraphy, A Modern Synthesis (a.D. Miall, 2016)

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Stratigraphy

Andrew D. Miall

A Modern Synthesis


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Stratigraphy: A Modern Synthesis


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Andrew D. Miall

Stratigraphy: A ModernSynthesis

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Andrew D. MiallDepartment of GeologyUniversity of TorontoToronto, ONCanada

ISBN 978-3-319-24302-3 ISBN 978-3-319-24304-7 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-24304-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015952024

Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material isconcerned, specically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction

on microlms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronicadaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specic statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws andregulations and therefore free for general use.The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believedto be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty,express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have beenmade.

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“ For Meredith, Henry and Owen”


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Preface

The stratigraphic record is the major repository of information about the geological history of

Earth, a record stretching back for nearly 4 billion years. Stratigraphic studies ll out our

planet ’s plate-tectonic history with the details of paleogeography, past climates, and the record

of evolution, and stratigraphy is at the heart of the effort to nd and exploit fossil-fuel resources.

The exploration of this history has been underway since James Hutton rst established the

basic idea of uniformitarianism toward the end of the eighteenth century, and William Smith

developed the stratigraphic basis for geological mapping a few decades later. Modern strati-

graphic methods are now able to provide insights into past geological events and processes on

time scales with unprecedented accuracy and precision, and have added much to our under-

standing of global tectonic and climatic processes. But it has taken 200 years and a modern

revolution to bring all the necessary developments together to create the modern, dynamic

science that this book sets out to describe.

It has been a slow revolution, but stratigraphy now consists of a suite of integrated concepts

and methods, several of which have considerable predictive and interpretive power. It is

argued in Chap. 1 of this book that the new, integrated, dynamic science that stratigraphy has

become is now inseparable from what were its component parts, including sedimentology,

chronostratigraphy, and the broader aspects of basin analysis. In this chapter, the evolution of

this modern science is traced from its nineteenth-century beginnings, including the contri-

butions that such special elds as facies analysis, fluid hydraulics, plate tectonics, and the

reflection-seismic surveying method have made to its evolution.

The following are just some of the major features of the stratigraphy of the early

twenty-rst century: Sequence stratigraphy has become the standard methodology for docu-

mentation, mapping and interpretation, replacing the old descriptive practices of lithostratig-

raphy; reflection-seismic methods, including the use of 3-D seismic and the application of

seismic geomorphology, have become steadily more advanced tools for subsurface exploration

and development; the Geological Time Scale is being standardized with the universal adoption

of the system of Global Stratigraphic Sections and Points (GSSPs) and has become much more

precise, with the incorporation of several new methods for evaluating deep time.

The basic eld and subsurface observations on which stratigraphy is based are described in

Chap. 2. Facies analysis methods are detailed in Chap. 3, and the recognition of depositional

environments by facies methods is described in Chap. 4. Chapter 5 provides a succinct

summary of sequence models for siliciclastic and carbonate sediments, and Chap. 6 describes

modern mapping methods for use in surface and subsurface studies, including seismic

methods. The synthesis of all this material is detailed in Chap. 7, which includes a discussion

of the current attempts to standardize sequence-stratigraphic terminology and the Geological

Time Scale.

Chapter 8, the concluding chapter of the book, focuses on the new understanding we are

acquiring about the processes by which the stratigraphic record preserves elapsed geologic

time. Renements in chronostratigraphic methods are revealing the importance of breaks in

the sedimentary record and the ubiquity of missing time, and are revealing an important

disconnect between sedimentation rates and preservational processes operating at the present

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day versus those we interpret from the rock record. This calls for a signicant modication in

the way that we apply the traditional principles of uniformitarianism to our reconstructions of

geologic history.

The new synthesis that is the subject of this book is offered for advanced undergraduate and

graduate training and for use by professionals, particularly those engaged in mapping and

subsurface exploration and development.

Toronto Andrew D. MiallApril 2015

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Revision History

My rst book, Principles of Sedimentary Basin Analysis, has gone through three editions,

published successively in 1984, 1990, and 1999. A year or so ago, I realized that it might be

time for a new edition. In reviewing the changes that have taken place in the whole broad eld

of sedimentary geology since that last edition, it became clear that stratigraphy is the area that

has undergone the most signicant changes in the last decades, and that is what I decided

would most usefully be treated at length in this book.

Stratigraphy has undergone a revolution that has brought together multiple developments

dealing with different themes and concepts in sedimentary geology and basin analysis.

Chapter 1 includes a new section in which I trace the evolution of these many themes, andattempt to show how they have come together during the last few decades (since about 1990).

The text of Chaps. 2 and 4 from Principles has been updated and becomes Chaps. 2–4 in

the present book. Chapter 3 of Principles, which dealt with dating and correlation, and the

formal methods for the denition and naming of units, has been substantially rewritten and

incorporates much of the material I wrote for “Sophisticated Stratigraphy,” a review prepared

at the invitation of the Geological Society of America (Miall 2013). It has been moved further

along in the present book, appearing as Chap. 7, the point being that stratigraphy should now

be seen as a science that synthesizes sedimentary geology, and which therefore requires that

the subject is best addressed once the work of sedimentological description and interpretation

is underway.

Chapters 5 and 6 of the present book are those that have undergone the most complete

rewriting, to reflect the major changes in the science since the previous edition. Sequence

stratigraphy (Chap. 5) has become the standard method for formal description and paleo-

geographic interpretation, and mapping methods (Chap. 6) are now dominated, at least in the

petroleum industry, by the techniques of the reflection-seismic method, including 3-D seismic

and the interpretive methods of seismic geomorphology.

The book culminates with Chap. 8, which is intended primarily as a review of current

research into the nature of deep time as preserved in the sedimentary record. It is partly based

on two research publications (Miall 2014b; Miall 2015) that focus on modern data dealing

with sedimentation and accommodation rates, and the implications of these data for strati-

graphic interpretation. The chapter concludes with a review of the current advanced research

into cyclostratigraphy and astrochronology.

References

Miall, A. D., 2013, Sophisticated stratigraphy, in Bickford, M. E., ed., The web of geological sciences:

Advances, impacts and interactions: Geological Society of America Special Paper 500, p. 169-190.

Miall, A. D., 2014b, The emptiness of the stratigraphic record: A preliminary evaluation of missing time in the

Mesaverde Group, Book Cliffs, Utah: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 84, p. 457-469.

Miall, A. D., 2015, Updating uniformitarianism: stratigraphy as just a set of “frozen accidents”, in Smith, D. G.,

Bailey, R., J., Burgess, P., and Fraser, A., eds., Strata and time: Geological Society, London, Special

Publication 404, p. 11-36.

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Acknowledgments

Colleagues who assisted with the earlier editions of Principles by critically reading parts or all

of the manuscript include Tony Tankard, Andy Baillie, Guy Plint, and Ray Ingersoll. I am

eternally grateful for their wise advice, and if they choose to do so they will nd signicant

portions of the book that describe basic methods, such as the foundations of facies analysis

methods, largely unchanged in this book.

Reviewers for the journal articles from which material in Chaps. 7 and 8 was drawn

included Felix Gradstein, Ashton Embry, Bruce Wilkinson, Tony Hallam, Alan Smith, Brian

Pratt, Gerald Bryant, John Holbrook, Chris Paola, Pete Sadler, Robin Bailey, Dave Smith,

John Howell, and Torbörn Törnqvist. The historical section in Chap. 1 was reviewed by Bill

Fisher, Ron Steel, Bob Dalrymple, and Martin Gibling. Chapters 5–7 were critically read by

David Morrow. I extend my thanks to all these individuals. Any remaining errors or omissions

remain my responsibility.

Once again I must acknowledge the enthusiastic support and encouragement of my wife,

Charlene Miall. Her insights into the scientic method and the sociology of science have been

particularly invaluable. My children, Chris (partner Natalie) and Sarah (partner Brad) have

consistently been supportive.

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Contents

1 The Scope of Modern Stratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 The Importance of Stratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 The Evolution of “Sophisticated Stratigraphy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2.1 Beginnings (Nineteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2.2 Cyclic Sedimentation (1932–1968) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2.3 Basin Analysis and the Big Picture (1948–1977) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.2.4 The Meaning of “Facies” (1949–1973) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.2.5 Fluid Hydraulics and Sedimentary Structures (1953–1976) . . . . . 6

1.2.6 Early Studies of Modern Environments (1954–

1972) . . . . . . . . . 7

1.2.7 Facies Model Concept (1959–2010) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.2.8 The Impact of the Plate-Tectonics Revolution

on Basin Studies (1959–1988) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.2.9 Unconformities and the Issue of Time

in Stratigraphy (1909–1970) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.2.10 Sequences and Seismic Stratigraphy (1963–1977). . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1.2.11 Architectural Elements: Sedimentology in Two

and Three Dimensions (1983–1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.2.12 Sequence Stratigraphy (1986–1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.2.13 Reconciling Facies Models with Sequence Stratigraphy (1990). . . 15

1.2.14 The Full Flowering of Modern

Sequence-Stratigraphic Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.2.15 Stratigraphy: The Modern Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.3 Time in Stratigraphy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.4 Types of Project and Data Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.4.1 Regional Surface Stratigraphic Mapping Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.4.2 Local Stratigraphic-Sedimentologic Mapping Project . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.4.3 Regional Subsurface Mapping Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

1.4.4 Local Subsurface Mapping Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

1.5 Summary of Research and Reporting Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2 The Stratigraphic-Sedimentologic Data Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.2 Describing Surface Stratigraphic Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.2.1 Methods of Measuring and Recording the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.2.2 Types of Field Observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.2.3 Sampling Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

2.2.4 Plotting the Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

2.3 Describing Subsurface Stratigraphic Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

2.3.1 Methods of Measuring and Recording the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

2.3.2 Types of Cutting and Core Observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

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2.3.3 Sampling Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

2.3.4 Plotting the Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

2.4 Petrophysical Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

2.4.1 Gamma Ray Log (GR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

2.4.2 Spontaneous Potential Log (SP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

2.4.3 Resistivity Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

2.4.4 Sonic Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

2.4.5 Formation Density Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

2.4.6 Neutron Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

2.4.7 Crossplots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

2.4.8 Integrating Cores and Wireline Logs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

3 Facies Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

3.2 The Meaning of Facies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

3.3 Recognition and Definition of Facies Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

3.3.1 Philosophy and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

3.3.2 Field Examples of Facies Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

3.3.3 Establishing a Facies Scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

3.3.4 Facies Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

3.4 Facies Associations and Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

3.4.1 The Association and Ordering of Facies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

3.4.2 The Theory of Facies Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

3.4.3 The Present as the Key to the Past, and Vice Versa . . . . . . . . . . 91

3.4.4 To Classify and Codify, or Not? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

3.4.5 Facies Analysis and Sequence Stratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

3.5 Review of Environmental Criteria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

3.5.1 Grain Size and Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

3.5.2 Petrology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

3.5.3 Bedding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

3.5.4 Hydrodynamic Sedimentary Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

3.5.5 Sediment Gravity Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

3.5.6 Sedimentary Structures Produced by Hydrodynamic

Erosion of the Bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

3.5.7 Liquefaction, Load and Fluid Loss Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

3.5.8 Paleoecology of Body Fossils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

3.5.9 Ichnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

3.5.10 Vertical Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

3.5.11 Architectural Elements and Bounding Surfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

3.6 Conclusions and Scale Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

4 Facies Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

4.2 Clastic Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

4.2.1 Fluvial Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

4.2.2 Eolian Environments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

4.2.3 Lacustrine Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

4.2.4 Glacial Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

4.2.5 Coastal Wave- and Tide-Dominated Environments . . . . . . . . . . . 172

4.2.6 Deltas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

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4.2.7 Estuaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

4.2.8 Continental Shelf Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

4.2.9 Continental Slope and Deep Basin Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

4.3 Carbonate Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

4.3.1 Conditions of Carbonate Sedimentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

4.3.2 Platforms and Reefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

4.3.3 Tidal Sedimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

4.3.4 Carbonate Slopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

4.4 Evaporites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

5 Sequence Stratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

5.2 Elements of the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

5.2.1 Accommodation and Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

5.2.2 Stratigraphic Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

5.2.3 Depositional Systems and Systems Tracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

5.3 Sequence Models in Clastic and Carbonate Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

5.3.1 Marine Clastic Depositional Systems and Systems Tracts . . . . . . 225

5.3.2 Nonmarine Depositional Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

5.3.3 Carbonate Depositional Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

5.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

6 Basin Mapping Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

6.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

6.2 Stratigraphic Mapping with Petrophysical Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

6.2.1 Log Shape and Electrofacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

6.2.2 Examples of Stratigraphic Reconstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

6.2.3 Problems and Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

6.3 Seismic Stratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

6.3.1 The Nature of the Seismic Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

6.3.2 Constructing Regional Stratigraphies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

6.3.3 Seismic Facies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

6.3.4 Seismic Geomorphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

6.4 Directional Drilling and Geosteering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

6.5 Older Methods: Isopleth Contouring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

6.6 Mapping on the Basis of Detrital Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

6.6.1 Clastic Petrofacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

6.6.2 Provenance Studies Using Detrital Zircons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

6.6.3 Chemostratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

6.7 Paleocurrent Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

6.7.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

6.7.2 Types of Paleocurrent Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

6.7.3 Data Collection and Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

6.7.4 The Bedform Hierarchy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

6.7.5 Environment and Paleoslope Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

7 Stratigraphy: The Modern Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

7.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

7.2 Types of Stratigraphic Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

7.3 The Six Steps Involved in Dating and Correlation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

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7.4 Lithostratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

7.4.1 Types of Lithostratigraphic Units and Their Definition . . . . . . . . 317

7.4.2 The Names of Lithostratigraphic Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

7.5 Biostratigraphy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

7.5.1 The Nature of the Biostratigraphic Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

7.5.2 Biochronology: Zones and Datums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

7.5.3 Diachroneity of the Biostratigraphic Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

7.5.4 Quantitative Methods in Biochronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

7.6 Unconformity-Bounded Units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

7.7 The Development of Formal Definitions for Sequence Stratigraphy. . . . . . 335

7.8 Chronostratigraphy and Geochronometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

7.8.1 The Emergence of Modern Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

7.8.2 Determining the Numerical (“Absolute”) Age

of a Stratigraphic Horizon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

7.8.3 Stages and Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

7.8.4 Event Stratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

7.8.5 Absolute Ages: Their Accuracy and Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

7.8.6 The Current State of the Global Stratigraphic Sections

and Points (GSSP) Concept, and Standardization

of the Chronostratigraphic Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

7.8.7 Cyclostratigraphy and Astrochronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

8 The Future of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

8.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

8.2 Where We Are Now and How We Got Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

8.3 A Natural Hierarchy of Sedimentary Processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

8.4 Sedimentation Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

8.5 The Fractal-Like Character of Sedimentary Accumulation . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

8.6 Apparent Anomalies of High Sedimentation Rate Versus

Slow Rate of Accommodation Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

8.7 Accommodation and Preservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

8.7.1 Preservation at a Scale of Seconds to Months . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

8.7.2 Preservation at a Scale of Years to Thousands of Years . . . . . . . 387

8.7.3 Preservation at the Scale of Tens of Thousands to Hundreds

of Thousands of Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

8.7.4 Preservation at the Scale of Millions of Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

8.8 Implications of Missing Time for Modern Stratigraphic Methods . . . . . . . 390

8.8.1 Sequence Stratigraphy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

8.8.2 Implications for Stratigraphic Continuity, the Concept

of Correlation and the Principal of the GSSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

8.8.3 Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

8.9 An Example of the Evaluation of Missing Time: The Mesaverde

Group of the Book Cliffs, Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

8.9.1 Chronostratigraphy of the Mesaverde Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

8.9.2 Chronostratigraphy of the Spring Canyon

and Aberdeen Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

8.9.3 The Representation of Time in a Coastal Clastic Succession . . . . 398

8.9.4 Sequence Stratigraphy of the Nonmarine Facies

of the Blackhawk Formation and Castlegate Sandstone . . . . . . . . 399

8.9.5 The Representation of Time in a Fluvial Succession . . . . . . . . . . 401

8.9.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

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8.10 The Future of Conventional Chronostratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

8.10.1 Current Examples of Outstanding Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

8.10.2 The Use of Wheeler Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

8.10.3 Improving Accuracy and Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

8.11 High-Resolution Event Stratigraphy, Cyclostratigraphy

and Astrochronology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

8.12 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Contents xvii

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1The Scope of Modern Stratigraphy

Contents

1.1 The Importance of Stratigraphy..................................... 1

1.2 The Evolution of “Sophisticated Stratigraphy” ............ 2

1.2.1 Beginnings (Nineteenth Century)....................................... 3

1.2.2 Cyclic Sedimentation (1932–

1968).................................... 3

1.2.3 Basin Analysis and the Big Picture (1948–1977) ............. 4

1.2.4 The Meaning of “Facies” (1949–1973) ............................. 5

1.2.5 Fluid Hydraulics and Sedimentary Structures (1953–1976) 6

1.2.6 Early Studies of Modern Environments (1954–1972)....... 7

1.2.7 Facies Model Concept (1959–2010) .................................. 7

1.2.8 The Impact of the Plate-Tectonics Revolution on Basin

Studies (1959–1988)........................................................... 9

1.2.9 Unconformities and the Issue of Time in Stratigraphy

(1909–1970)........................................................................ 11

1.2.10 Sequences and Seismic Stratigraphy (1963–1977)............ 13

1.2.11 Architectural Elements: Sedimentology in Two and Three

Dimensions (1983–1990) ................................................... 14

1.2.12 Sequence Stratigraphy (1986–1990) .................................. 14

1.2.13 Reconciling Facies Models with Sequence Stratigraphy

(1990).................................................................................. 15

1.2.14 The Full Flowering of Modern Sequence-Stratigraphic

Methods .............................................................................. 16

1.2.15 Stratigraphy: The Modern Synthesis.................................. 17

1.3 Time in Stratigraphy........................................................ 17

1.4 Types of Project and Data Problems ............................. 18

1.4.1 Regional Surface Stratigraphic Mapping Project ............... 18

1.4.2 Local Stratigraphic-Sedimentologic Mapping Project ....... 19

1.4.3 Regional Subsurface Mapping Project ............................... 20

1.4.4 Local Subsurface Mapping Project .................................... 23

1.5 Summary of Research and Reporting Procedures ....... 24

References ....................................................................................... 26

1.1 The Importance of Stratigraphy

It could be argued that in some respects Stratigraphy is the

most important component of the science of Geology. Here’s

why:

McLaren (1978) provided nine reasons why the study of

Stratigraphy with, at its center, an accurate geological time

scale, is important:

[Stratigraphy supplies unique and essential information regard-

ing:] (1) rates of tectonic processes; (2) rates of sedimentation

and accurate basin history; (3) correlation of geophysical and

geological events; (4) correlation of tectonic and eustatic events;

(5) are epeirogenic movements worldwide [?]… (6) have there

been simultaneous extinctions of unrelated animal and plant

groups [?]; (7) what happened at era boundaries [?]; (8) have

there been catastrophes in earth history which have left a

simultaneous record over a wide region or worldwide [?]; and

(9) are there different kinds of boundaries in the geologic suc-

cession [?] (That is, “natural” boundaries marked by a world-

wide simultaneous event versus “

quiet ”

boundaries, man-madeby denition).[question marks added]

Doyle and Bennett (1998, p. 1) stated that “Stratigraphy

is the key to understand the Earth, its materials, structure and

past life. It encompasses everything that has happened in the

history of the planet ” In this statement is the recognition that

the stratigraphic history of layered sedimentary rocks pre-

served on the continents, and on the ocean floors constitutes

the documented record of Earth history. No other branch of

geology can provide this information.

Berggren et al. (1995, p. v) explained that the “essence of

Stratigraphy and its handmaiden Geochronology” is to

“understand the dynamic relationship which certainly existsbetween the evolution of ocean-continental geometries and

concomitant changes in the climate and ocean circulation

system and the evolution of life itself ” by situating “the

progression of events in this intricately related system in a

precise temporal framework.”

Torrens (2002, p. 251) pointed out a unique and essential

component of stratigraphy: “The science of geology is all

about time. … So stratigraphy must rst and foremost

concern questions of time. It is the only area of geology that

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is truly unique, other branches of geology are too often

borrowed bits of physics, chemistry or biology.”

The world’s rst stratigrapher was William Smith, a canal

surveyor, who produced the rst regional geological map in

1815, covering England, Wales and part of Scotland. The

construction and renement of geological maps, and the

documentation of the subsurface for the purposes of petro-

leum and mineral exploration, have constituted two of theprimary activities of practicing stratigraphers worldwide for

the past 200 years. Dating and correlating the rocks have

formed an integral part of this work, and questions about the

nature of the time signal preserved in stratigraphic succes-

sions, and the developments of methods to investigate it

have constituted a large part of this activity. William Smith’s

principal theoretical contribution — which is what made

geological mapping possible — was the recognition of the

reliability of the fossil record: the same assemblages of

fossils always occur in the same order, and thus were born

both the method of relative age-dating and the rst reliable

method for correlation on the basis of time.

As I demonstrated in my review paper for the Geological

Society of America (“Sophisticated Stratigraphy”: Miall

2013), modern stratigraphic methods are now providing

extraordinary insights into the history of our Earth. Modern

methods of age-dating and modern analytical methods have

revolutionized the business of historical geology. In the

drive to develop and apply ever more precise laboratory

methods to geological samples, whether this be with the aim

of age dating or the reconstruction of past climates, it is all

too easy to lose sight of exactly where samples come from

and what was their eld context. How typical and how

representative are samples, relative to the variability of their

eld setting? How were they situated with respect to breaks

in sedimentation, the record of rare events, or disturbance

induced by bioturbation or syn-depositional tectonism?

Specialists in quantitative methods, particularly geophysi-

cists, and those using numerical and statistical methods,

including models and simulations, may be particularly sus-

ceptible to these hazards. One of the key elements of the

stratigraphic data base is therefore eld context . What is the

stratigraphic and sedimentologic setting of the rocks that we

are using to make these sophisticated interpretations? This is

one of the unique characteristics of the science of stratigra-

phy, of particular relevance to the reconstruction of events in

past time.

Until the 1960s, stratigraphy was largely a descriptive

science, concerned primarily with the documentation of the

lithologic and biostratigraphic successions of sedimentary

basins as a basis for locating and exploiting fossil fuel and

mineral deposits. Textbooks on petroleum geology, such as

Levorsen (1954), contain some of the most advanced and

detailed treatments of stratigraphy as actually practiced in

the eld. In many respects, William Smith’s focusing on

basic mapping survived as a central focus through several of

the revolutions that were took place in the earth sciences,

beginning in the 1960s. However, over the last fty years a

profound change in approach has taken place, initially under

the rubric of Sedimentology, which took sedimentary

geologists away from description and classication into a

focus on processes (Seibold and Seibold 2002, provided a

detailed history from a European perspective; see alsoMiddleton 2005). Only in recent years have Stratigraphy,

Sedimentology and Basin Analysis come together to pro-

vide a dynamic, unied approach to the study of sedimentary

basins. It would now be accurate to state that “Stratigraphy

IS Sedimentology and Sedimentology IS Stratigraphy.”

The evolution of modern methods can be understood as a

series of separate developments that partially overlapped in

time and which have gradually coalesced to create, in my

review written for the Geological Society of America (Miall

2013), what I called “Sophisticated Stratigraphy.” Middleton

(2005, p. 628) suggested that:

Only after 1950 was it common to nd specialists who studied

sedimentary rocks, but declined to be called stratigraphers, and

since 1977 an increasing number of specialists refuse to make a

hard distinction between sedimentology and at least some

aspects of paleontology and stratigraphy, which they include

together as “sedimentary geology.”

Some of the developments in the study of sedimentary

rocks were initiated many years ago, but it has only been

since sequence stratigraphy matured as a standard descrip-

tive and mapping method during the 1990s that it has

become apparent that it has drawn on, exploited, and pulled

together these earlier developments that commonly tended to

be considered and written about in isolation. The historical

evolution of these concepts is summarized in the next

section.

1.2 The Evolution of “SophisticatedStratigraphy”

The roots of modern, dynamic stratigraphy go back to the

recognition of the concept of facies in the early nineteenth

century, but it is argued here that the modern era began with

the increased understanding of fluid hydraulics and cyclic

sedimentation and the evolution of the facies model con-

cept in the 1960s. The evolution is broken down below into

fourteen steps. A critical fteenth strand of development

concerns the developments of concepts about geologic time

and the increasing accuracy and precision with which

geologist can now reconstruction the ages of events in the

distant geological past. This topic is addressed in Sect. 7.8.

These strands of development did not take place in isolation;

however, they represent separate concepts or areas of spe-

cialization, which took some time to come together into the

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unied, integrated science that is now practiced. This sum-

mary is intended only to touch on the main highlights. A full

historical and analytical account remains to be written. Many

of the publications listed have become classics, with many

hundreds of citations.

1.2.1 Beginnings (Nineteenth Century)

Middleton (2005) divided the history of sedimentology into

six periods or stages. The rst stage ended about 1830 with

the publication of Lyell’s (1830) masterwork, that led to the

general acceptance of uniformitarianism, or actualism, as

the basis for geology. What follows in this section falls into

his second period. The subsequent discussion does not

adhere to his subdivision into “periods” because I focus on

specic themes which overlapped in time.

Two key early developments were the recognition of the

concept of facies (Gressly 1838), and the establishment of

Walther’s Law (Walther 1893–

1894). Teichert (1958),Middleton (1973) and Woodford (1973) reviewed the his-

tory and use of the concepts in light of contemporary ideas.

Note the dates of these papers (1958, 1973), in light of the

stages of development summarized below, because they help

to explain the chronological evolution of modern strati-

graphic thought and theory. Walther ’s law is discussed

further in Sect. 3.4.1.

Developments in biostratigraphy were enormously

important, in establishing some of the basic ideas about

stratal succession, relative ages, and correlation. The evo-

lution of the concepts of zone and stage are discussed in

detail elsewhere (Hancock 1977; Miall 2004), topics that are

not repeated here. Stratigraphic paleontology was a central

theme of stratigraphy until relatively recent times. In fact, the

rst professional society in the eld of sedimentary geology,

the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists,

founded in Tulsa in 1931, emphasized this fact in the title of

the society. Paleontology and mineralogy were important

elements of petroleum geology and basin analysis until the

seismic revolution of the 1970s, mainly because of their use

in the identication and correlation of rock units in

petroleum-bearing basins.

1.2.2 Cyclic Sedimentation (1932–1968)

Implicit in the early work on facies and on Walther ’s Law is

the concept of recurrence of certain environments and their

deposits. The idea of cyclicity became explicit with the study

of the Carboniferous deposits of the US Midcontinent in the

early 1930s, which consist of repetitions of a coal-bearing

clastic-carbonate succession. These came to be

called cyclothems. Wanless and Weller (1932, p. 1003) are

credited with the original denition of this term:

The word “cyclothem” is therefore proposed to designate a

series of beds deposited during a single sedimentary cycle of the

type that prevailed during the Pennsylvanian period

Shepard and Wanless (1935) and Wanless and Shepard

(1936) subsequently attributed the cyclicity to cycles of sea-level change, an explanation that has never been

challenged.

The beginnings of an understanding of the signicance of

the lithofacies signatures of common environmental settings

is implicit in the paper by Nanz (1954), where coarsening-

and ning-upward trends extracted from some modern sed-

imentary environments in Texas are presented. There is no

discussion of repetitiveness or cyclicity in this paper, but the

work was clearly foundational for the very important papers

by Nanz’s Shell colleagues that followed less than a decade

later (see Sect. 1.2.6).

Duff and Walton (1962) demonstrated that the cyclothemconcept had become very popular by the early 1960s. For

example, Allen (1962, 1964), who is credited as one of the

two originators of the meandering-river point-bar model for

fluvial deposits, used the term cyclothem for cycles in the

Old Red Sandstone in his rst papers on these deposits. Duff

and Walton (1962) addressed the widespread use (and mis-

use) of the term cyclothem, and discussed such related

concepts as modal cycle, ideal cycle, idealized cycle, and

theoretical cycle, the differences between cyclicity, rhyth-

micity and repetition, and the possible value of statistical

methods for rening cyclic concepts. They speculated about

the possibility of repeated delta-lobe migration as a cause of cyclicity, in contrast to the prevailing interpretation of the

cycles as the product of sea-level change.

With Carboniferous coal-bearing deposits as the focus,

two edited compilations dealing with cyclic sedimentation

made essential contributions to the birth of modern sedi-

mentology at about this time. Merriam (1964), based in

Kansas, provided a focus on the US Midcontinent deposits,

while Duff et al. (1967) dealt at length with European

examples. The Kansas publication included a study of cyclic

mechanisms by Beerbower (1964) that introduced the con-

cepts of autocyclic and allocyclic processes. Autocyclic

processes refers to the processes that lead to the naturalredistribution of energy and sediment within a depositional

system (e.g., meander migration, shoreline progradation) —

the preference is now to use the term autogenic because they

are not always truly cyclic — whereas allocyclic (allogenic)

processes are those generated outside the sedimentary sys-

tem by changes in discharge, load, and slope. Beerbower

(1964) was dealing specically with alluvial deposits in this

paper, but his two terms have subsequently found universal

1.2 The Evolution of “Sophisticated Stratigraphy” 3

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application for other environments and their deposits. The

term allogenic is now used to refer to processes external to a

sedimentary basin, including eustasy, tectonism and climate

change.

Another important contribution at this time was that by

Visher (1965). The purpose of his paper was to build on the

ideas contained in Walther ’s Law to highlight the impor-

tance of the vertical prole in environmental interpretation.He provided detailed descriptions of the proles for six

clastic environments, regressive marine, fluvial (channel or

valley-ll), lacustrine, deltaic, transgressive marine, and

bathyal-abyssal, drawing on both

Stratigraphy, A Modern Synthesis (a.D. Miall, 2016)

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