Site Guide
- The menu bar at the top accesses the landing page to each major section
- The sidebar menu to the left allows you to explore the site
- The small search window on the right just below the upper menu bar searches entire site.
Image Display at Higher Resolution. Click on "hot" thumbnails to activate shadow boxes containing larger images and right click on image for better resolution displays. This applies to the gallery images too!
Home is the Gateway to the main site page.
Contributed Themes links to analogues of depositional systems and an overview of the major depositional settings
Sediments and Rocks links to clastic sediments and carbonate sediments: carbonate section discusses classifications, facies related exercises, carbonate thin sections links to photomicrographs of carbonate grains; while depositional systems provides analogues of depositional systems and an overview of the major depositional settings (all the overview sections developed by geology students).
Paleontology sections are intended to provide simple, easy to ready summaries on the most significant
family of each large benthic foraminifera suborder so that students have an overview
before launching into more extensive online dictionaries or texts. This portion of the site is still under construction but should still be of use to students in need of an introduction.
Galleries links to compendiums of images, movies gallery library of images largely digitized from a collection of photographs taken at many localities for use in lectures and movies that introduce the concepts of sequence stratigraphy.
World Petroleum links to global and regional petroleum consumption rates, discovery rates and future reserves.
Intended users of this site:
• Undergraduate and graduate students academic institutions and organizations
• Professionals in geological surveys and related institutes
• Professionals in the oil and mining industry
• Young and/or mature scientists with a developing interest in the history of the earth and the methods used to unravel its origins
Purpose of this site
Combine linked text, images, and short movies to provide an understanding of the principles of sedimentary and sequence stratigraphy. Often persons exposed to this topic for the first time, even experienced sedimentary stratigraphers, are confused with the extensive terminology of this science and the complex geometric response of the sedimentary record to changing rates of sedimentation and relative sea level (whether this latter is the product of world wide changes in sea level [eustasy], or vertical tectonic movement). The site navigates these common problems while improving the users' understanding of the sedimentary section of the earths crust and the principles of this earth science discipline.
Uses of sequence stratigraphy
Sequence stratigraphy is used with biostratigraphy and tectonic analysis to correlate and analyze sedimentary Rocks from the perspective of geologic time. It enables the reconstructions of paleogeography and the creation of models that predict the distribution of sedimentary facies, particularly those associated with aquifers, sediment bound ore bodies, and hydrocarbon reservoirs, their source Rocks and seals.
The site examines sequence stratigraphy from is origins to its current usage. It considers sequence stratigraphy as a tool that enables geologists to examine and interpret depositional sequences. It also provide a framework linking hydrocarbon reservoir and exploration models of sedimentary facies, lithostratigraphy and chrono-stratigraphy. We provide definitions for terms used by sequence stratigraphers and deal with the fundamental concepts of sequence stratigraphy and provide practical methods of the interpretation of well logs and seismic data.
Overview
The traditional approach to the study of sequence stratigraphy uses text books and published papers coupled with exercises that involve paper print outs of seismic and well logs, and interaction at a computer terminal with electronic displays of seismic and well data. The web offers a number of media that have been previously unavailable in these classic approaches, namely:
• Animated cartoons demonstrating how gross sedimentary geometric relationships develop in response to varying rates of change of sedimentation, eustasy and tectonic movement
• Movies of sedimentary simulations
• Video narration
• Films on location
• 3D perspectives
• Simple interactive exercises
• The potential to simulate the development of geometric relationships on line
• Links
• References
• On line papers
The advantage of centralized web based data is that this globally accessible platform provides a template for the complexities of sediment stratigraphy; enables identification, testing, and modeling of sedimentary systems and the sharing sequence stratigraphic data with others; enhances the understanding of biostratigraphy and providing age constraints for stratal geometries and sequence stratigraphic interpretations. Our philosophy in developing this set of web pages that they will help reduce time for understanding interpretations of seismic and well data by helping identify and constrain key factors that control sequence stratigraphic geometries and architectures, including rates of sedimentation, eustatic sea level, and tectonics.