WHAT'S NEW

You will notice the new format to the site which now falls under the appropriate protective umbrella of SEPM, the Society for Sedimentary Geology. The Society proposes that the Strata/SEPM site remains open domain with easy access allowing a continued open debate on sequence stratigraphy. The site will continue to gather pertinent and available information as it relates specifically sequence stratigraphy, seismic stratigraphy and other aspects of stratigraphy and provide acces to these on the STRATA website.

If you wish to contribute materials to the site you should contact Christopher Kendall of the University of South Carolina or Howard Harper of the SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology for the protocol you should follow to do this. If you would like to be a member of the STRATA website committee please contact Howard Harper of the SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology and let him know.

On line streaming lectures on Sequence Stratigraphy methodology, surfaces, units and terminology discussed by Ashton Embry, Bill Galloway, Doug Cant, Andrew Miall, Michael Rygel and Chris Kendall. Streaming lectures can be posted on line for those of you that have a favorite lecture for the world of the officiendos and disciples of sequence stratigraphy

Dialogue on Formalization of Sequence Stratigraphy methodology, surfaces, units and terminology launched by Octavian Catuneanu and Ashton Embry through IWGSS (International Working Group on Sequence Stratigraphy) and International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification (ISSC) Task Group on Sequence Stratigraphy. Comments can be posted for these groups for their manuscripts revision.

New gallery of photographs of impregnated Evaporite & cyanobacterial cores collected by Godfrey Butler from Abu Dhabi sabkhas south of Mukhtah in the Mid 1960's for his MSc and PhD research.

A new set of pages on Deepwater systems that provides text & diagrams on the stratigraphy & sedimentary depositional systems of this setting. Exercises, photogalleries and movies are coming soon!!

A new gallery from a field trip made by 3rd year USC geology students to Hook Head, Country Wexford Ireland provides field photos & diagrams of the stratigraphy & sedimentary depositional systems (both carbonates and clastics).

A new link lists all the Exercises as Adobe.pdf files with the intent that this way they are easier to find and print out. Some exercise images are duplicated as .gif files and .jpg files in case this is the way you prefer the images.

A new set of carbonate well log exercises have been added that include:

In the interest of helping the user web site navigation has been polished and the "Gateway" page is easier to navigate.

Additionally the site is supplemented with an index to complete site access to the site contents with a listing of links to pages. Further help to web navigation is provided with the pull-down menus which have all been revised. If a particular section of the site is being visited this menu provides access to other items related to the topic at hand or alternatively higher level sections(Septemeber, 2005).

Galleries: this is a new section of field photos & diagrams of sequence stratigraphy & sedimentary depositional systems (often carbonates) from around the world (August, 2005).

Interpretation of Outcrops of the Upper Miocene of Mallorca, Llucmajor reef complex provides an overview of the topic or using reef trajectory to interpret evolution of the depositional setting. This self contained unit provides the necessary background to venture into the identification of parasequence using lithofacies and outcrop characteristics of the section. Exercises progress from very simple to a more regional interpretation.. (July 8, 2004).

High Frequency Parasequences Interpretation from Well Logs & Core section provides an overview of this topic. This self contained unit provides the necessary background to venture into the identification of parasequence using lithofacies and well log characteristics of the section. Exercises progress from very simple to a regional interpretation.. (July 23, 2002).

This introduction to Carbonate Petrology provides access to photomicrographs of over 240 different thin sections of carbonate rocks. Some 1,700 images were captured, and as a result some thin sections have over ten images associated with them. Images are continuously being added as they become ready for publishing. (July 10, 2002).

Text of Nassir Alnaji's Master's thesis specially formated for the web for easy navigation and complete with 10's of illustrations and references. The title of the thesis is "Two Carbonate Shelf Margins with Hydrocarbon Potential Compared: Upper Jurassic Formations of Arabian Basin and Guadalupian Formations of Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico". (June 20, 2002).

Animated Gifs The new Gif animations was added to display gif animations describing stratigraphic processes. (January 02, 2002).

Terminology Has been extensively revised by adding more terms, cross-terms links, and Gif animations (January 02, 2002).

Clastic Systems Tract Evolution Check our latest Clastic Systems Tract Evolution Through Time movie! (You can also access this movie by clicking on the banner in Clastic Sedimentary response to changing sea level page.(December 20, 2001)

Two-sided Clastic and Carbonate Fill of a Sedimentary Basin  This is movie is based on a Sedpak simulation which provided the cross sections for the evolving sedimentary geometries. In the interest of providing a better understanding of this simulation, it has been provided with an interpretive 3D perspective. Even so the amount of information available in this movie is overwhelming. For more details interpretations of this move, visit Two-Sided Clastic Fill of a Sedimentary Basin. (December 14, 2001)

Istvan Csato We are pleased to include contributions by Istvan Csato who was an adjunct assistant professor at USC. (December 05, 2001).

Exercises This new exercises section provides a place where all exercises of this site can be accesses (September 25, 2001).

Seismic Analysis Exercises Four This exercise objectives are to introduce the principles of seismic sequence stratigraphy of carbonate sediments. A full exercise of the Stratigraphy of the Neogene of the Western Bahamas with background text, papers, images, and references are also included (September 25, 2001).

World Petroleum Reserves and Consumption An overview of the current state of world reserves and consumption with vital statistics. (September 12, 2001).

Seismic Analysis Exercise One This exercise objectives are to introduce the principles of tying synthetic seismographs obtained from wells to the seismic lines they penetrate. A complete exercise with background text and analysis from Williston Basin are presented in this section (September 10, 2001).

Seismic Analysis Exercise Three Added a third Seismic Sequence Analysis to the seismic section of Sequence Stratigraphy. This exercise objectives are to interpret the sequence stratigraphy of a seismic data set from the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPRA) (August 12, 2001).

Carbonate Petrology This petrography section is being used by students of Department of Geology at the University of South Carolina who are taking the laboratory exercises for Carbonate Petrography with photomicrographs and textual descriptions (July 19, 2001).

Students Contributions Sequence Stratigraphy-related contributions by students (initially of University of South Carolina). These contributions include class projects, thesis work, and virtual field trips presented as-is (July 08, 2001).

Petrology Sites reviewed This new page includes Internet pages that provide material on mineralogy and fossils. We reviewed and rated these sites based on contents depth and quality of illustrations. (July 05, 2001).

Sequence Stratigraphy Terminology Extensive updates with many newly added illustrations and links.(July 05, 2001).

Clastic Sequence with Incised Valley (click here for a smaller-version) This animation movie illustrates the development of a clastic sequence with valley incision, an associated well log interpretation and the systems tracts (June 18, 2001).

Incorporated are three new exercises tied to the well log sequence stratigraphy section. Use the pull down menu to access these exercises. These range from very simple examples involving the correlation of only three wells to more complex exercises involving the correlation of twenty-two wells (June 18, 2001).

A Tale of Two Basins Our latest addition!! This page provides a general comparison of two carbonate shelf margins: The San Andres Formation of the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico and the Arab Formations of Eastern Saudi Arabia. (April 23, 2001)

USC World Petroleum A new page that deals with world petroleum, its current status and future trends in petroleum production, consumption and reserves. (February 28, 2001)