MAKALAH PRINSIP STRATIGRAFI

OLEH
MUHAMMAD FIKRI AZIS 270110140034
Disusun untuk memenuhi salah satu nilai tugas mata kuliah Prinsip Stratigrafi

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
FAKULTAS TEKNIK GEOLOGI
2015

Table of Contents
Table of Contents................................................................................................i
1. History of Geology and Stratigraphy Development.........................1
1.1 Geological Science Development.............................................................................1
1.2 Geological Science Revolution: Plate Tectonic and Sequence Stratigraphy...........12

2. Rock Classification.......................................................................................4
2.1 Sedimentary Rocks.................................................................................................19
2.2 Igneous Rocks........................................................................................................21
2.3 Metamorphic Rocks................................................................................................23

3. Traditional Stratigraphy Principle......................................................31

3.1 Superposition..........................................................................................................31
3.2 Horizontality...........................................................................................................31
3.3 Original Continuity.................................................................................................32
3.4 Uniformitarianism..................................................................................................32
3.5 Catasthropism.........................................................................................................32
3.6 Faunal Succession..................................................................................................34
3.7 Strata Identified by Fossils.....................................................................................36
3.8 Cross-cutting Relationships....................................................................................37

4. Modificaton of TraditionalConcept into Modern Concept..........39

4.1 Traditional Stratigraphy vs Sequence Stratigraphy.................................................39
4.2 Law of Superposition vs Stratal Concept................................................................41

4.3 Lateral Continuity Principle vs Lateral Termination..............................................42

4.4 Original Horizontality Principle vs Clinoform........................................................43
4.5 Vertical Accumulation vs Lateral Accumulation.....................................................43
4.6 Unconformity Concept vs Stratal Discontinuity.....................................................44
4.7 Cyclicity of Strata and Stratigraphy Classification System.....................................46

References..........................................................................................................49

1. History of Geology and Sratigraphy Development

1.1.Geological Science Development

Geology is an earth science comprising the study of solid Earth, the
rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change.
The development of this science has begun since the age of Ancient
Greece and it still developing now. These are the centuries/ages where
major development of geological science were invented:
1.1.1. Age of Ancient Greece and Roman Emperor
Some of the first geological thoughts were about the origin of
the Earth. Ancient Greece developed some primary geological
concepts concerning the origin of the Earth. Additionally, in the 4th
century BC Aristotle made critical observations of the slow rate of
geological change. He observed the composition of the land and
formulated a theory where the Earth changes at a slow rate and that
these changes cannot be observed during one persons lifetime.
Aristotle developed one of the first evidentially based concepts
connected to the geological realm regarding the rate at which the
Earth physically changes.
However, it was his successor at the Lyceum, the philosopher
Theophrastus, who made the greatest progress in antiquity in his
work On Stones. He described many minerals and ores both from
local mines such as those at Laurium near Athens, and further
afield. He also quite naturally discussed types of marble and
building materials like limestones, and attempted a primitive
classification of the properties of minerals by their properties such
as hardness.
Much later in the Roman period, Pliny the Elder produced a
very extensive discussion of many more minerals and metals then
widely used for practical ends. He was among the first to correctly
identify the origin of amber as a fossilized resin from trees by the
observation of insects trapped within some pieces. He also laid the

basis of crystallography by recognising the octahedral habit of

diamond.
1.1.2. Middle Ages
Abu
Rayhan
(AD

alal-Biruni

973-1048)

was one of the

earliest

Muslim

geologists, whose
works included the
earliest writings on
the

geology

of

India, hypothesizing that the Indian subcontinent was once a sea.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 981-1037), a Persian polymath, made
Image 1.1 Post-stamp of AlBiruni

significant contributions to geology and the natural sciences (which

he called Attabieyat) along with other natural philosophers such as
Ikhwan AI-Safa and many others. Ibn Sina wrote an encyclopaedic
work entitled Kitab al-Shifa (the Book of Cure, Healing or
Remedy from ignorance), in which Part 2, Section 5, contains his
commentary on Aristotle's Mineralogy and Meteorology, in six
chapters: Formation of mountains, The advantages of mountains in
the formation of clouds; Sources of water; Origin of earthquakes;
Formation of minerals; The diversity of earths terrain.
In medieval China, one of the most intriguing naturalists was
Shen Kuo (1031-1095), a polymath personality who dabbled in
many fields of study in his age. In terms of geology, Shen Kuo is
one of the first naturalists to have formulated a theory of
geomorphology. This was based on his observations of sedimentary
uplift, soil erosion, deposition of silt, and marine fossils found in

the Taihang Mountains, located hundreds of miles from the Pacific

Ocean. He also formulated a theory of gradual climate change, after
his observation of ancient petrified bamboos found in a preserved
state underground near Yanzhou (modern Yan'an), in the dry
northern climate of Shaanxi province. He formulated a hypothesis
for the process of land formation: based on his observation of fossil
shells in a geological stratum in a mountain hundreds of miles from
the ocean, he inferred that the land was formed by erosion of the
mountains and by deposition of silt.

1.1.3. 17th Century

It was not until
the 17th century that
geology made great
strides

in

its

development. At this
time,
became

geology
its

own

entity in the world of

natural science. It
Image 1.2 Nicolas Steno

was discovered by

the Christian world that different translations of the Bible contained

different versions of the biblical text. The one entity that remained
consistent through all of the interpretations was that the Deluge had
formed the worlds geology and
geography. To prove the Bibles authenticity, individuals felt the
need to demonstrate with scientific evidence that the Great Flood
had in fact occurred. With this enhanced desire for data came an
increase in observations of the Earths composition, which in turn

led to the discovery of fossils. Although theories that resulted from

the heightened interest in the Earths composition were often
manipulated to support the concept of the Deluge, a genuine
outcome was a greater interest in the makeup of the Earth. Due to
the strength of Christian beliefs during the 17th century, the theory
of the origin of the Earth that was most widely accepted was A New
Theory of the Earth published in 1696, by William Whiston.
Whiston used Christian reasoning to prove that the Great Flood
had occurred and that the flood had formed the rock strata of the
Earth.
During the 17th century the heated debate between religion
and science over the Earths origin further propelled interest in the
Earth and brought about more systematic identification techniques
of the Earths strata. The Earths strata can be defined as horizontal
layers of rock having approximately the same composition
throughout. An important pioneer in the science was Nicolas Steno.
Steno was trained in the classical texts on science; however, by
1659 he seriously questioned accepted knowledge of the natural
world. Importantly, he questioned the idea that fossils grew in the
ground, as well as common explanations of rock formation. His
investigations and his subsequent conclusions on these topics have
led scholars to consider him one of the founders of modern
stratigraphy and geology.
1.1.4. 18th Century
From this increased interest in the nature of the Earth and its
origin, came a heightened attention to minerals and other
components of the Earths crust. Moreover, the increasing
economic importance of mining in Europe during the mid to late
18th century made the possession of accurate knowledge about ores
and their natural distribution vital. Scholars began to study the

makeup of the Earth in a systematic manner, with detailed

comparisons and descriptions not only of the land itself, but of the
semi-precious metals it contained, which had great commercial
value. For example, in 1774 Abraham Gottlob Werner published
the book Von den usserlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien (On the
External Characters of Minerals), which brought him widespread
recognition because he presented a detailed system for identifying
specific minerals based on external characteristics. The more
efficiently productive land for mining could be identified and the
semi-precious metals could be found, the more money could be
made. This drive for economic gain propelled geology into the
limelight and made it a popular subject to pursue. With an
increased number of people studying it, came more detailed
observations and more information about the Earth.
Also during the eighteenth century, aspects of the history of
the Earthnamely the divergences between the accepted religious
concept and factual evidenceonce again became a popular topic
for discussion in society. In 1749 the French naturalist GeorgesLouis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon published his Histoire Naturelle,
in which he attacked the popular Biblical accounts given by
Whiston and other ecclesiastical theorists of the history of Earth.[12]
From experimentation with cooling globes, he found that the age of
the Earth was not only 4,000 or 5,500 years as inferred from the
Bible, but rather 75,000 years.[13] Another individual who described
the history of the Earth with reference to neither God nor the Bible
was the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who published his Universal
Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (Allgemeine
Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels) in 1755. From the
works of these respected men, as well as others, it became
acceptable by the mid eighteenth century to question the age of the
Earth. This questioning represented a turning point in the study of

the Earth. It was now possible to study the history of the Earth from
a scientific perspective without religious preconceptions.
With the application of scientific methods to the investigation
of the Earth's history, the study of geology could become a distinct
field of science. To begin with, the terminology and definition of
what constituted geological study had to be worked out. The term
"geology" was first used technically in publications by two
Genevan naturalists, Jean-Andr Deluc and Horace-Bndict de
Saussure, though "geology" was not well received as a term until it
was taken up in the very influential compendium, the
Encyclopdie, published beginning in 1751 by Denis Diderot. Once
the term was established to denote the study of the Earth and its
history, geology slowly became more generally recognized as a
distinct science that could be taught as a field of study at
educational institutions. In 1741 the best-known institution in the
field of natural history, the National Museum of Natural History in
France, created the first teaching position designated specifically
for geology. This was an important step in further promoting
knowledge of geology as a science and in recognizing the value of
widely disseminating such knowledge.
By the 1770s chemistry was starting to play a pivotal role in
the theoretical foundation of geology and two opposite theories
with committed followers emerged. These contrasting theories
offered differing explanations of how the rock layers of the Earths
surface had formed. One suggested that a liquid inundation,
perhaps like the biblical deluge, had created all geological strata.
The theory extended chemical theories that had been developing
since the seventeenth century and was promoted by Scotland's John
Walker, Sweden's Johan Gottschalk Wallerius and Germany's
Abraham Werner. Of these names, Werner's views become
internationally influential around 1800. He argued that the Earths

layers, including basalt and granite, had formed as a precipitate

from an ocean that covered the entire Earth. Werners system was
influential and those who accepted his theory were known as
Diluvianists or Neptunists. The Neptunist thesis was the most
popular during the late eighteenth century, especially for those who
were chemically trained. However, another thesis slowly gained
currency from the 1780s forward. Instead of water, some mid
eighteenth-century naturalists such as Buffon had suggested that
strata had been formed through heat (or fire). The thesis was
modified and expanded by the Scottish naturalist James Hutton
during the 1780s. He argued against the theory of Neptunism,
proposing instead the theory of based on heat. Those who followed
this thesis during the early nineteenth century referred to this view
as Plutonism: the formation of the Earth through the gradual
solidification of a molten mass at a slow rate by the same processes
that had occurred throughout history and continued in the present
day. This led him to the conclusion that the Earth was
immeasurably old and could not possibly be explained within the
limits of the chronology inferred from the Bible. Plutonists
believed that volcanic processes were the chief agent in rock
formation, not water from a Great Flood[19]
1.1.5. 19th Century
In the early 19th century the mining industry and Industrial
Revolution stimulated the rapid development of the stratigraphic
column - the sequence of rock formations arranged according to
their order of formation in time.[20] In England. the mining
surveyor William Smith, starting in the 1790s, found empirically
that fossils were a highly effective means of distinguishing between
otherwise similar formations of the landscape as he travelled the
country working on the canal system and produced the first

geological map of Britain. At about the same time, the French

comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier assisted by his colleague
Alexandre Brogniart at the cole des Mines de Paris realized that
the relative ages of fossils could be determined from a geological
standpoint; in terms of what layer of rock the fossils are located and
the distance these layers of rock are from the surface of the Earth.
Through the synthesis of their findings, Brogniart and Cuvier
realized that different strata could be identified by fossil contents
and thus each stratum could be assigned to a unique position in a
sequence. After the publication of Cuvier and Brongniarts book,
Description Geologiques des Environs de Paris in 1811, which
outlined the concept, stratigraphy became very popular amongst
geologists; many hoped to apply this concept to all the rocks of the
Earth.[22] During this century various geologists further refined and
completed the stratigraphic column. For instance, in 1833 while
Adam Sedgwick was mapping rocks that he had established were
from the Cambrian Period, Charles Lyell was elsewhere suggesting
a subdivision of the Tertiary Period;[23] whilst Roderick Murchison,
mapping into Wales from a different direction, was assigning the
upper parts of Sedgewick's Cambrian to the lower parts of his own
Silurian Period.[24] The stratigraphic column was significant
because it supplied a method to assign a relative age of these rocks
by slotting them into different positions in their stratigraphical
sequence. This created a global approach to dating the age of the
Earth and allowed for further correlations to be drawn from
similarities found in the makeup of the Earths crust in various
countries.
In early nineteenth-century Britain, catastrophism was
adapted with the aim of reconciling geological science with
religious traditions of the biblical Great Flood. In the early 1820s
English geologists including William Buckland and Adam

Sedgwick interpreted "diluvial" deposits as the outcome of Noah's

flood, but by the end of the decade they revised their opinions in
favour of local inundations. Charles Lyell challenged catastrophism
with the publication in 1830 of the first volume of his book
Principles of Geology which presented a variety of geological
evidence from England, France, Italy and Spain to prove Huttons
ideas of gradualism correct. He argued that most geological change
had been very gradual in human history. Lyell provided evidence
for Uniformitarianism; a geological doctrine that processes occur at
the same rates in the present as they did in the past and account for
all of the Earths geological features. Lyells works were popular
and widely read, the concept of Uniformitarianism had taken a
strong hold in geological society.
During the same time that the stratigraphic column was being
completed, imperialism drove several countries in the early to mid
19th century to explore distant lands to expand their empires. This
gave naturalists the opportunity to collect data on these voyages. In
1831 Captain Robert FitzRoy, given charge of the coastal survey
expedition of HMS Beagle, sought a suitable naturalist to examine
the land and give geological advice. This fell to Charles Darwin,
who had just completed his BA degree and had accompanied
Sedgwick on a two-week Welsh mapping expedition after taking
his Spring course on geology. Fitzroy gave Darwin Lyells
Principles of Geology, and Darwin became Lyell's first disciple,
inventively theorising on uniformitarian principles about the
geological processes he saw, and challenging some of Lyell's ideas.
He speculated about the Earth expanding to explain uplift, then on
the basis of the idea that ocean areas sank as land was uplifted,
theorised that coral atolls grew from fringing coral reefs round
sinking volcanic islands. This idea was confirmed when the Beagle
surveyed the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and in 1842 he published his

theory on The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. Darwin's

discovery of giant fossils helped to establish his reputation as a
geologist, and his theorising about the causes of their extinction led
to his theory of evolution by natural selection published in On the
Origin of Species in 1859.
Economic motivations for the practical use of geological data
caused governments to support geological research. During the
19th century the governments of several countries including
Canada, Australia, Great Britain and the United States funded
geological surveying that would produce geological maps of vast
areas of the countries. Geological surveying provides the location
of useful minerals and such information could be used to benefit
the countrys mining industry. With the government funding of
geological research, more individuals could study geology with
better technology and techniques, leading to the expansion of the
field of geology.
In the 19th century, scientific realms established the age of
the Earth in terms of millions of years. By the early 20th century
the Earths estimated age was 2 billion years. Radiometric dating
determined the age of minerals and rocks, which provided
necessary data to help determine the Earths age. With this new
discovery based on verifiable scientific data and the possible age of
the Earth extending billions of years, the dates of the geological
time scale could now be refined. Theories that did not comply with
the scientific evidence that established the age of the Earth could
no longer be accepted.
1.1.6. 20th Century
The determined age of the Earth as 2 billion years opened
doors for theories of continental movement during this vast amount
of time. In 1912 Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of

Continental Drift.[30] This theory suggests that the continents were

joined together at a certain time in the past and formed a single
landmass known as Pangaea; thereafter they drifted like rafts over
the ocean floor, finally reaching their present position. The shapes
of continents and matching coastline geology between some
continents indicated they were once attached together as Pangea.
Additionally, the theory of continental drift offered a possible
explanation as to the formation of mountains. From this, different
theories developed as to how mountains were built. Unfortunately,
Wegener provided no convincing mechanism for this drift, and his
ideas were not accepted during his lifetime.
Research from 1947 found new evidence about the ocean
floor, and in 1960 Bruce C. Heezen published the concept of midocean ridges. Soon after this, Robert S. Dietz and Harry H. Hess
proposed that the oceanic crust forms as the seafloor spreads apart
along mid-ocean ridges in seafloor spreading. This led directly to
the theory of Plate Tectonics that was well supported and accepted
by almost all geologists by the end of the decade, and provided a
mechanism explaining the apparent drift which Wegener had
proposed. Geophysical evidence suggested lateral motion of
continents and that oceanic crust is younger than continental crust.
This geophysical evidence also spurred the hypothesis of
paleomagnetism, the record of the orientation of the Earths
magnetic field recorded in magnetic minerals. British geophysicist
S. K. Runcorn suggested the concept of paleomagnetism from his
finding that the continents had moved relative to the Earths
magnetic poles.
1.1.7. Modern Geology
By applying sound stratigraphic principles to the distribution
of craters on the Moon, it can be argued that almost overnight,

Gene Shoemaker took the study of the Moon away from Lunar
astronomers and gave it to Lunar geologists.
In recent years, geology has continued its tradition as the
study of the character and origin of the Earth, its surface features
and internal structure. What changed in the later 20th century is the
perspective of geological study. Geology was now studied using a
more integrative approach, considering the Earth in a broader
context encompassing the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.
Satellites located in space that take wide scope photographs of the
Earth provide such a perspective. In 1972, The Landsat Program, a
series of satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S.
Geological Survey, began supplying satellite images that can be
geologically analyzed. These images can be used to map major
geological units, recognize and correlate rock types for vast regions
and track the movements of Plate Tectonics. A few applications of
this data include the ability to produce geologically detailed maps,
locate sources of natural energy and predict possible natural
disasters caused by plate shifts.

1.2. Geological Science Revolution: Plate Tectonic and

Sequence Stratigraphy
1.2.1. Plate Tectonic
Image 1.3
Tectonic Plates
of Earth
Source: USGS

Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided

into several plates that glide over the mantle, the rocky inner layer
above the core. The plates act like a hard and rigid shell compared
to Earth's mantle. This strong outer layer is called the lithosphere.
Developed from the 1950s through the 1970s, plate tectonics
is the modern version of continental drift, a theory first proposed by
scientist Alfred Wegener in 1912. Wegener didn't have an
explanation for how continents could move around the planet, but
researchers do now. Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of
geology, said Nicholas van der Elst, a seismologist at Columbia
University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New
York.
"Before plate tectonics, people had to come up with
explanations of the geologic features in their region that were
unique to that particular region," Van der Elst said. "Plate tectonics
unified all these descriptions and said that you should be able to
describe all geologic features as though driven by the relative
motion of these tectonic plates."
The driving force behind plate tectonics is convection in the
mantle. Hot material near the Earth's core rises, and colder mantle
rock sinks. "It's kind of like a pot boiling on a stove," Van der Elst
said. The convection drive plates tectonics through a combination
of pushing and spreading apart at mid-ocean ridges and pulling and
sinking downward at subduction zones, researchers think.
Scientists continue to study and debate the mechanisms that move
the plates.
Mid-ocean ridges are gaps between tectonic plates that
mantle the Earth like seams on a baseball. Hot magma wells up at
the ridges, forming new ocean crust and shoving the plates apart.
At subduction zones, two tectonic plates meet and one slides

beneath the other back into the mantle, the layer underneath the
crust. The cold, sinking plate pulls the crust behind it downward.
Many spectacular volcanoes are found along subduction
zones, such as the "Ring of Fire" that surrounds the Pacific Ocean.

Plate boundaries
Subduction zones, or convergent margins, are one of the three
types of plate boundaries. The others are divergent and transform
margins.At a divergent margin, two plates are spreading apart, as at
seafloor-spreading ridges or continental rift zones such as the East
Africa Rift.
Transform

margins

mark

slip-sliding

plates,

such

as

California's San Andreas Fault, where the North America and

Pacific plates grind past each other with a mostly horizontal
motion.

Image 1.4 Illustration of main type of plate boundaries. Souce:USGS

Reconstructing the past

While the Earth is 4.54 billion years old, because oceanic
crust is constantly recycled at subduction zones, the oldest seafloor
is only about 200 million years old. The oldest ocean rocks are
found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and the eastern
Mediterranean Sea. Fragments of continental crust are much older,
with large chunks at least 3.8 billion years found in Greenland.
With clues left behind in rocks and fossils, geoscientists can
reconstruct the past history of Earth's continents. Most researchers
think modern plate tectonics began about 3 billion years ago, based
on ancient magmas and minerals preserved in rocks from that
period.
"We don't really know when plate tectonics as it looks today
got started, but we do know that we have continental crust that was
likely scraped off a down-going slab [a tectonic plate in a
subduction zone] that is 3.8 billion years old," Van der Elst said.
"We could guess that means plate tectonics was operating, but it
might have looked very different from today."
As the continents jostle around the Earth, they occasionally
come together to form giant supercontinents, a single landmass.
One of the earliest big supercontinents, called Rodinia, assembled
about 1 billion years ago. Its breakup is linked to a global
glaciation called Snowball Earth.
A more recent supercontinent called Pangaea formed about
300 million years ago. Africa, South America, North America and
Europe nestled closely together, leaving a characteristic pattern of
fossils and rocks for geologists to decipher once Pangaea broke
apart. The puzzle pieces left behind by Pangaea, from fossils to the
matching shorelines along the Atlantic Ocean, provided the first
hints that the Earth's continents move.

1.2.2. Sequence Stratigraphy

Sequence stratigraphy is concerned with the large-scale,
three-dimensional arrangement of sedimentary strata, and the major
factors that influence their geometries such as sea-level change,
contemporaneous fault movements, basin subsidence and sediment
supply (cf. reviews by Emery & Myers 1996; Miall 1997). The
observational basis of sequence stratigraphy is the ubiquitous
arrangement of strata into units bounded above and below by
unconformities that can be traced out into conformable surfaces in
a basinward direction. These surfaces are defined as the sequence
boundaries and the strata between them constitute a depositional
sequence.
The geometrical relationships are observable from seismic
reflection profiles, extensive (e.g. hillside) field exposures, or are
inferred by correlations from smaller locations. A generalized
model of a depositional sequence, including details of the internal
geometries, is shown in Fig. 6. No temporal or thickness scale is
given in this figure because sequences develop in a hierarchical
fashion at a great range of scales (e.g. Van Wagoner et al. 1990).
The principal factor thought to govern the genesis of a depositional
sequence is relative sea-level change. Relative sea-level change is
the net result of global sea-level change combined with local
subsidence or uplift of the depositional area (Posamentier & Vail
1988).
An important practical aspect of sequence stratigraphy is the
recognition of key surfaces. In the Exxon model of sequence
stratigraphy (e.g. Haq et al. 1988) the unconformity surface
represents the proximal area of a sequence boundary and passes
into expanded sedimentary successions in more basinal settings; it
develops when proximal accommodation is no longer available.
Accommodation is a loosely-defined term meaning space available

for sediment to accumulate: this space is capped by a dynamic

'accommodation limit', a surface which passes through the
shoreline and is itself dependent on sediment supply and transport
processes. The proximal region of the sequence boundary is
characterized by erosion of the underlying strata and may include
such features as river valleys cut into previously deposited marine
strata of the underlying surface. Conversely, the distal region of
the sequence boundary may be represented by the increased
volume of sedimentary debris eroded from the more landward sites.
In addition to the sequence boundary, two other important
surfaces occur within a sequence. The more distal portion of the
maximum flooding surface represents, like the sequence boundary,
a break in deposition or very slow sedimentation, but unlike the
sequence boundary it develops at the far end of the sediment
transport path as a result of sediment starvation, and may be
characterised by condensed marine deposits containing an abundant
pelagic fauna and well-developed early (sea-floor) authigenic
mineralisation, especially with glauconite and phosphate. The
more landward portions of the maximum flooding surface may, by
contrast, be hidden within a thick succession of relatively shallow
marine or non-marine strata. (It is the maximum flooding surface
that normally defines the limits of Galloway's (1989) genetic
stratigraphical sequences: see below). A third important surface is
the transgressive surface, which is generally taken to be the first
significant marine flooding surface within the sequence.
Within sequences, further, more subtle geometrical and facies
relationships have been used to define systems tracts (Van Wagoner
et al. 1988; cf. Helland-Hansen & Gjelberg 1994; Helland-Hansen
& Martinsen 1996). Geometrical arrangements of facies or
smaller-scale sedimentary cycles (`parasequences') may be such
that systems tracts can be recognized in single vertical sections at

outcrop or within a borehole (Van Wagoner et al. 1990). A foursystems-tract subdivision of depositional sequences is now
commonly employed (Hunt & Tucker 1992, 1995). Overlying the
sequence boundary is the lowstand systems tract, characterized by
inferred rising relative sea-level and shoreline regression (the latter
continuous from the preceding systems tract). The transgressive
systems tract comprises strata whose depositional environments
migrate overall in a landward direction (i.e. are transgressive) and
whose component stratal surfaces onlap pre-existing deposits; the
base is defined by the transgressive surface and relative sea-level at
the shoreline is also inferred to have been rising. The transgressive
systems tract is terminated at its top at the maximum flooding
surface, above which strata of the highstand systems tract shift
basinward again, with successive stratal surfaces terminating in
progressively more distal locations, forming a geometrical pattern
known as downlap (note the general similarities with the lowstand
systems tract). The final, forced regressive systems tract is
represented by an arrangement of strata whose shoreline positions
migrated progressively downwards as well as basinwards and so is
produced during falling relative sea-level and regression (the
surface defining the base had been termed the basal surface of
forced regression).

2. Rock Classification

Image 2.1
Rock Cycle
Source:
washington.ed
u

In geology, rocks are classified into 3 groups based on how it was

formed, here are those 3 groups:

2.1. Sedimentary Rocks

Sedimentary rocks are formed from pre-existing rocks or pieces
of once-living organisms. They form from deposits that accumulate on
the Earth's surface. Sedimentary rocks often have distinctive layering or
bedding. Many of the picturesque views of the desert southwest show
mesas and arches made of layered sedimentary rock. Based on its
genetic, sedimentary rocks calssified into three groups:
2.1.1. Clastic Sedimentary Rock
Clastic sedimentary rocks are the group of rocks most people
think of when they think of sedimentary rocks. Clastic sedimentary
rocks are made up of pieces (clasts) of pre-existing rocks. Pieces of
rock are loosened by weathering, then transported to some basin or
depression where sediment is trapped. If the sediment is buried
deeply, it becomes compacted and cemented, forming sedimentary
rock.

Clastic sedimentary rocks may have particles ranging in size

from microscopic clay to huge boulders. Their names are based on

their clast or grain size. The smallest grains are called clay, then
silt, then sand. Grains larger that 2 millimeters are called pebbles.
Shale is a rock made mostly of clay, siltstone is made up of siltsized grains, sandstone is made of sand-sized clasts, and
conglomerate is made of pebbles surrounded by a matrix of sand or
mud.
2.1.2. Biologic Sedimentary Rock
Biologic sedimentary rocks form when large numbers of
living things die, pile up, and are compressed and cemented to form
rock. Accumulated carbon-rich plant material may form coal.
Deposits made mostly of animal shells may form limestone,
coquina, or chert.
2.1.3. Chemical Sedimentary Rock
Chemical sedimentary rocks are formed by chemical
precipitation. The stalactites and stalagmites you see in caves form
this way, so does the rock salt that table salt comes from. This
process begins when water traveling through rock dissolves some
of the minerals, carrying them away from their source. Eventually
these minerals can be redeposited, or precipitated, when the water
evaporates away or when the water becomes over- saturated with
minerals.

2.2. Igneous Rocks

Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of
magma or lava. Igneous rock may form with or without crystallization,
either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface
as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. This magma can be derived from partial
melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planet's mantle or crust. Typically,
the melting is caused by one or more of three processes: an increase in
temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition. Over

700 types of igneous rocks have been described, most of them having
formed beneath the surface of Earth's crust. There are two basic types of
igneous rocks:
2.2.1. Intrusive Igneous Rocks
Image2.2 Formation of igneous rocks

Intrusive igneous rocks are formed from magma that cools

and solidifies within the crust of a planet, surrounded by preexisting rock (called country rock); the magma cools slowly and, as
a result, these rocks are coarse grained. The mineral grains in such
rocks can generally be identified with the naked eye. Intrusive
rocks can also be classified according to the shape and size of the
intrusive body and its relation to the other formations into which it
intrudes. Typical intrusive formations are batholiths, stocks,
laccoliths, sills and dikes. When the magma solidifies within the
earth's crust, it cools slowly forming coarse textured rocks, such as
granite, gabbro, or diorite.
The central cores of major mountain ranges consist of
intrusive igneous rocks, usually granite. When exposed by erosion,
these cores (called batholiths) may occupy huge areas of the Earth's
surface.

Coarse grained intrusive igneous rocks that form at depth

within the crust are termed as abyssal; intrusive igneous rocks that
form near the surface are termed hypabyssal.
2.2.2. Extrusive Igneous Rocks
Extrusive igneous rocks, also known as volcanic rocks, are
formed at the crust's surface as a result of the partial melting of
rocks within the mantle and crust. Extrusive igneous rocks cool and
solidify quicker than intrusive igneous rocks. They are formed by
the cooling of molten magma on the earth's surface. The magma,
which is brought to the surface through fissures or volcanic
eruptions, solidifies at a faster rate. Hence such rocks are smooth,
crystalline and fine grained. Basalt is a common extrusive igneous
rock and forms lava flows, lava sheets and lava plateaus. Some
kinds of basalt solidify to form long polygonal columns. The
Giant's Causeway found in Antrim, Northern Ireland is an example.
2.2.3. Hybabissal Igneous Rocks
Hypabyssal igneous rocks are formed at a depth in between
the plutonic and volcanic rocks. These are formed due to cooling
and resultant solidification of rising magma just beneath the earth
surface. Hypabyssal rocks are less common than plutonic or
volcanic rocks and often form dikes, sills, laccoliths, lopoliths, or
phacoliths.
These igneous rocks usually classified based on the percentage of
certain

minerals

(Quartz,

Alkali-Feldspar,

Feldsphatoid) that made by Alex Streckeisen (1978)

Plagioclase,

and

Image 2.3
Classification of
Igneous Rocks
(Streckeisen,
1978)

2.3. Metamorphic Rocks

Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock
types, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in
form".The original rock (protolith) is subjected to heat (temperatures
greater than 150 to 200 C) and pressure (1500 bars), causing profound
physical and/or chemical change. The protolith may be a sedimentary
rock, an igneous rock or another older metamorphic rock.
Metamorphic rocks make up a large part of the Earth's crust and are
classified by texture and by chemical and mineral assemblage
(metamorphic facies). They may be formed simply by being deep
beneath the Earth's surface, subjected to high temperatures and the great
pressure of the rock layers above it. They can form from tectonic
processes such as continental collisions, which cause horizontal
pressure, friction and distortion. They are also formed when rock is
heated up by the intrusion of hot molten rock called magma from the

Earth's interior. The study of metamorphic rocks (now exposed at the

Earth's surface following erosion and uplift) provides information about
the temperatures and pressures that occur at great depths within the
Earth's crust. Some examples of metamorphic rocks are gneiss, slate,
marble, schist, and quartzite.
2.3.1. Types of Metamorphism
Contact metamorphism
Image 2.4 Illustration of contact
metamorphism

Contact

metamorphism is the name given to the changes that take place

when magma is injected into the surrounding solid rock (country
rock). The changes that occur are greatest wherever the magma
comes into contact with the rock because the temperatures are
highest at this boundary and decrease with distance from it. Around
the igneous rock that forms from the cooling magma is a
metamorphosed zone called a contact metamorphism aureole.
Aureoles may show all degrees of metamorphism from the contact
area to unmetamorphosed (unchanged) country rock some distance
away. The formation of important ore minerals may occur by the
process of metasomatism at or near the contact zone.
When a rock is contact altered by an igneous intrusion it very
frequently becomes more indurated, and more coarsely crystalline.
Many altered rocks of this type were formerly called hornstones,
and the term hornfels is often used by geologists to signify those
fine

grained,

compact,

non-foliated

products

of

contact

metamorphism. A shale may become a dark argillaceous hornfels,

full of tiny plates of brownish biotite; a marl or impure limestone
may change to a grey, yellow or greenish lime-silicate-hornfels or
siliceous marble, tough and splintery, with abundant augite, garnet,
wollastonite and other minerals in which calcite is an important
component. A diabase or andesite may become a diabase hornfels
or andesite hornfels with development of new hornblende and
biotite and a partial recrystallization of the original feldspar. Chert
or flint may become a finely crystalline quartz rock; sandstones
lose their clastic structure and are converted into a mosaic of small
close-fitting grains of quartz in a metamorphic rock called
quartzite.
If the rock was originally banded or foliated (as, for example, a
laminated sandstone or a foliated calc-schist) this character may not
be obliterated, and a banded hornfels is the product; fossils even
may have their shapes preserved, though entirely recrystallized, and
in many contact-altered lavas the vesicles are still visible, though
their contents have usually entered into new combinations to form
minerals that were not originally present. The minute structures,
however, disappear, often completely, if the thermal alteration is
very profound. Thus small grains of quartz in a shale are lost or
blend with the surrounding particles of clay, and the fine groundmass of lavas is entirely reconstructed.
By recrystallization in this manner peculiar rocks of very
distinct types are often produced. Thus shales may pass into
cordierite rocks, or may show large crystals of andalusite (and
chiastolite), staurolite, garnet, kyanite and sillimanite, all derived
from the aluminous content of the original shale. A considerable
amount

of

mica

(both

muscovite

and

biotite)

is

often

simultaneously formed, and the resulting product has a close

resemblance to many kinds of schist. Limestones, if pure, are often

turned into coarsely crystalline marbles; but if there was an
admixture of clay or sand in the original rock such minerals as
garnet, epidote, idocrase, wollastonite, will be present. Sandstones
when greatly heated may change into coarse quartzites composed
of large clear grains of quartz. These more intense stages of
alteration are not so commonly seen in igneous rocks, because their
minerals, being formed at high temperatures, are not so easily
transformed or recrystallized.
In a few cases rocks are fused and in the dark glassy product
minute crystals of spinel, sillimanite and cordierite may separate
out. Shales are occasionally thus altered by basalt dikes, and
feldspathic sandstones may be completely vitrified. Similar
changes may be induced in shales by the burning of coal seams or
even by an ordinary furnace.
There is also a tendency for metasomatism between the
igneous magma and sedimentary country rock, whereby the
chemicals in each are exchanged or introduced into the other.
Granites may absorb fragments of shale or pieces of basalt. In that
case, hybrid rocks called skarn arise, which don't have the
characteristics of normal igneous or sedimentary rocks. Sometimes
an invading granite magma permeates the rocks around, filling their
joints and planes of bedding, etc., with threads of quartz and
feldspar. This is very exceptional but instances of it are known and
it may take place on a large scale.
Regional metamorphism
Image 2.5 Illustration of regional metamorphism

Regional

metamorphism,

also

known

as

dynamic

metamorphism, is the name given to changes in great masses of

rock over a wide area. Rocks can be metamorphosed simply by
being at great depths below the Earth's surface, subjected to high
temperatures and the great pressure caused by the immense weight
of the rock layers above. Much of the lower continental crust is
metamorphic, except for recent igneous intrusions. Horizontal
tectonic movements such as the collision of continents create
orogenic belts, and cause high temperatures, pressures and
deformation in the rocks along these belts. If the metamorphosed
rocks are later uplifted and exposed by erosion, they may occur in
long belts or other large areas at the surface. The process of
metamorphism may have destroyed the original features that could
have revealed the rock's previous history. Recrystallization of the
rock will destroy the textures and fossils present in sedimentary
rocks. Metasomatism will change the original composition.
Regional metamorphism tends to make the rock more
indurated and at the same time to give it a foliated, shistose or
gneissic texture, consisting of a planar arrangement of the minerals,
so that platy or prismatic minerals like mica and hornblende have
their longest axes arranged parallel to one another. For that reason
many of these rocks split readily in one direction along micabearing zones (schists). In gneisses, minerals also tend to be
segregated into bands; thus there are seams of quartz and of mica in
a mica schist, very thin, but consisting essentially of one mineral.
Along the mineral layers composed of soft or fissile minerals the

rocks will split most readily, and the freshly split specimens will
appear to be faced or coated with this mineral; for example, a piece
of mica schist looked at facewise might be supposed to consist
entirely of shining scales of mica. On the edge of the specimens,
however, the white folia of granular quartz will be visible. In
gneisses these alternating folia are sometimes thicker and less
regular than in schists, but most importantly less micaceous; they
may be lenticular, dying out rapidly. Gneisses also, as a rule,
contain more feldspar than schists do, and are tougher and less
fissile. Contortion or crumbling of the foliation is by no means
uncommon; splitting faces are undulose or puckered. Schistosity
and gneissic banding (the two main types of foliation) are formed
by directed pressure at elevated temperature, and to interstitial
movement, or internal flow arranging the mineral particles while
they are crystallizing in that directed pressure field.
Rocks that were originally sedimentary and rocks that were
undoubtedly igneous may be metamorphosed into schists and
gneisses. If originally of similar composition they may be very
difficult to distinguish from one another if the metamorphism has
been great. A quartz-porphyry, for example, and a fine feldspathic
sandstone, may both be metamorphosed into a grey or pink micaschist.
2.3.2. Types of Metamorphic Rocks
There are two basic types of metamorphic rocks:
2.3.2.1. Foliated Metamorphic Rocks
Foliation forms when pressure squeezes the flat or elongate
minerals within a rock so they become aligned. These rocks
develop a platy or sheet-like structure that reflects the direction that

pressure was applied in. Slate, schist, and gneiss (pronounced

'nice') are all foliated metamorphic rocks. Foliation in geology
refers to repetitive layering in metamorphic rocks. Each layer may
be as thin as a sheet of paper, or over a meter in thickness. The
word comes from the Latin folium, meaning "leaf", and refers to
the sheet-like planar structure. It is caused by shearing forces
(pressures pushing different sections of the rock in different
directions), or differential pressure (higher pressure from one
direction than in others). The layers form parallel to the direction of
the shear, or perpendicular to the direction of higher pressure.
Nonfoliated metamorphic rocks are typically formed in the absence
of significant differential pressure or sheer. Foliation is common in
rocks affected by the regional metamorphic compression typical of
areas of mountain belt formation (orogenic belts).
More technically, foliation is any penetrative planar fabric
present in metamorphic rocks. Rocks exhibiting foliation include
the standard sequence formed by the prograde metamorphism of
mudrocks; slate, phyllite, schist and gneiss. The slatey cleavage
typical of slate is due to the preferred orientation of microscopic
phyllosilicate crystals. In gneiss the foliation is more typically
represented by compositional banding due to segregation of
mineral phases. Foliated rock is also known as S-tectonite in
sheared rock masses.
Examples include the bands in gneiss (gneissic banding), a
preferred orientation of planar large mica flakes in schist
(Schistocity), the preferred orientation of small mica flakes in
phyllite (with its planes having a silky sheen, called phylitic luster the Greek word, phyllon, also means "leaf"), the extremely fine
grained preferred orientation of clay flakes in slate (called "slaty

cleavage"), and the layers of flattened, smeared, pancake-like clasts

in metaconglomerate
2.3.2.2. Non-foliated Metamorphic Rocks
Non-foliated metamorphic rocks do not have a platy or sheetlike structure. There are several ways that non-foliated rocks can be
produced. Some rocks, such as limestone are made of minerals that
are not flat or elongate. No matter how much pressure you apply,
the grains will not align! Another type of metamorphism, contact
metamorphism, occurs when hot igneous rock intrudes into some
pre-existing rock. The pre-existing rock is essentially baked by the
heat, changing the mineral structure of the rock without addition of
pressure.

3. Traditional Stratigraphy Principal

3.1.Superposition
Image 3.1 Illustration of
Superposition Law

In a rock sequence, rock layer that located above the others is older than
the rock layer beneath it, as long as there was no deformation that occurs
in that rocks
This was stated by a bishop and Catholic scientist, Nicolas Steno in 1669.

3.2.Horizontality
Image 3.2 Illustration of
Horizontality Principal

In the early process of sedimentation, before it deformed or impacted by

force, sediment deposited nearly horizontally
This was stated by a bishop and Catholic scientist, Nicolas Steno in 1669.

3.3.Original Continuity
Image 3.3 Illustration of
Original Continuity Principal

The original continuity of water-laid sedimentary strata is terminated

only by pincing out againts the basin of deposition, at the time of their
deposition
This was stated by a bishop and Catholic scientist, Nicolas Steno in 1669.

3.4.Uniformitarianism
The Present is the key to the past.
This was stated by a Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer,
naturalist, and experimental agriculturalist, James Hutton, in 1785.
Uniformitarianism is geological event that happens in the past was
controlled by natures law that control recent event. This principal means
that the geological processes that happens recently, can be used as the
basic for knowing the past geological processes.

3.5.Catasthrophism
Catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has been affected in the
past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope.
This was in contrast to uniformitarianism (sometimes described as
gradualism), in which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, created
all the Earth's geological features. Uniformitarianism held that the
present is the key to the past, and that all things continued as they were

from the indefinite past. Since the early disputes, a more inclusive and
integrated view of geologic events has developed, in which the scientific
consensus accepts that there were some catastrophic events in the
geologic past, but these were explicable as extreme examples of natural
processes which can occur.
Catastrophism held that geological epochs had ended with violent
and sudden natural catastrophes such as great floods and the rapid
formation of major mountain chains. Plants and animals living in the
parts of the world where such events occurred were killed off, being
replaced abruptly by the new forms whose fossils defined the geological
strata. Some catastrophists attempted to relate at least one such change to
the Biblical account of Noah's flood.
The concept was first popularised by the early 19th-century French
scientist Georges Cuvier, who proposed that new life forms had moved in
from other areas after local floods, and avoided religious or metaphysical
speculation in his scientific writings

3.6.Faunal Succession
Image 3.4 Illustration of Faunal
Succession Principal

The principle of faunal succession, also known as the law of faunal

succession, is based on the observation that sedimentary rock strata
contain fossilized flora and fauna, and that these fossils succeed each
other vertically in a specific, reliable order that can be identified over
wide horizontal distances. A fossilized Neanderthal bone will never be
found in the same stratum as a fossilized Megalosaurus, for example,
because neanderthals and megalosaurs lived during different geological
periods, separated by many millions of years. This allows for strata to be
identified and dated by the fossils found within.
This principle, which received its name from the English geologist
William Smith, is of great importance in determining the relative age of
rocks and strata.The fossil content of rocks together with the law of
superposition helps to determine the time sequence in which sedimentary
rocks were laid down.

Evolution explains the observed faunal and floral succession

preserved in rocks. Faunal succession was documented by Smith in
England during the first decade of the 19 th century, and concurrently in
France by Cuvier (with the assistance of the mineralogist Alexandre
Brongniart). Archaic biological features and organisms are succeeded in
the fossil record by more modern versions. For instance, paleontologists
investigating the evolution of birds predicted that feathers would first be
seen in primitive forms on flightless predecessor organisms such as
feathered dinosaurs. This is precisely what has been discovered in the
fossil record: simple feathers, incapable of supporting flight, are
succeeded by increasingly large and complex feathers.
In practice, the most useful diagnostic species are those with the
fastest rate of species turnover and the widest distribution; their study is
termed biostratigraphy, the science of dating rocks by using the fossils
contained within them. In Cenozoic strata, fossilized tests of foraminifera
are often used to determine faunal succession on a refined scale, each
biostratigraphic unit (biozone) being a geological stratum that is defined
on the basis of its characteristic fossil taxa. An outline microfaunal zonal
scheme based on both foraminifera and ostracoda was compiled by M. B.
Hart (1972).
Simply, the earlier fossil life forms are simpler than more recent
forms, and more recent forms are most similar to existing forms
(principle of faunal succession).

3.7.Strata Identified by Fossils

Image 3.5 Illustration of Strata Identified by Fossils Principal

In 1816 Smith published a companion work, Strata Identified by

Organized Fossils, in which the organic remains characteristic of each of
his rock units were illustrated. His generalization that each formation is
possessed of properties peculiar to itself and has the same organized
fossils throughout its course is the first clear statement of the principle of
faunal sequence, which is the basis for worldwide correlation of
fossiliferous strata into a coherent system. Smith thus demonstrated two
kinds of order in nature: order in the spatial arrangement of rock units and
order in the succession of ancient forms of life.

3.8.Cross-Cutting Relationships

Image 3.6 Illustration of CrossCutting Relationships Principal

Cross-cutting relationships is a principle of geology that states that

the geologic feature which cuts another is the younger of the two features.
It is a relative dating technique in geology. It was first developed by
Danish geological pioneer Nicholas Steno in Dissertationis prodromus
(1669) and later by formulated by James Hutton in Theory of the Earth
(1795) and embellished upon by Charles Lyell in Principles of Geology
(1830).
There are several basic types of cross cutting relationships:

Structural relationships may be faults or fractures cutting through an

older rock.

Intrusional relationships occur when an igneous pluton or dike is

intruded into pre-existing rocks.

Stratigraphic relationships may be an erosional surface (or

unconformity) cuts across older rock layers, geological structures, or
other geological features.

Sedimentological relationships occur where currents have eroded or

scoured older sediment in a local area to produce, for example, a
channel filled with sand.

Paleontological relationships occur where animal activity or plant

growth produces truncation. This happens, for example, where
animal burrows penetrate into pre-existing sedimentary deposits.

Geomorphological relationships may occur where a surficial feature,

such as a river, flows through a gap in a ridge of rock. In a similar
example, an impact crater excavates into a subsurface layer of rock.
Cross-cutting relationships may be compound in nature. For

example, if a fault were truncated by an unconformity, and that

unconformity cut by a dike. Based upon such compound cross-cutting
relationships it can be seen that the fault is older than the unconformity
which in turn is older than the dike. Using such rationale, the sequence of
geological events can be better understood.

4. Modification of Traditional Concept into Modern

Concept
4.1.Traditional Deposition Model vs Modern (Sequence
Stratigraphy)
4.1.1. Traditional Deposition Model (Traditional Stratigraphy)
This kind of stratigraphy is based on the observed stratas, (based
on observable criterias) and limited interpretation of it. Those
criterias

could

biostratigraphy),

be

lithology

so

there

or
are

fossil

(paleontology

lithostratigraphy

and
unit,

chronostratigraphy unit and geochronology. In fact, in the last

International Code of Stratigraphy (1984), there is profile of
descriptive stratigraphy unit, and some of its interpretation unit. This
interpretative unit is a time unit, which is an unit globalization effort
like the various chronostratigraphy unit. Lithologcal unit is still local
and unrelated globally.
4.1.2. Sequence Stratigraphy
Related to the laws of increasing/decreasing sea level. Sequence
stratigraphy, although at first is descriptive like the traidtional
stratigraphy, but it has been improved into a determinative science,
even predictive. Stratigraphy unit and sedimentation determined by
the plot that can be derived from the law of increasing-decreasing
sea level which is global. With an addition of the sediment supply
speed, tectonic subsidence speed, then the stratigraphy units (system
tract/fades) is predictable. In this sequence stratigraphy, the
geological factor that controlled stratiraphy
stacking pattern, and facies controlled by 3 factors:

sequence, stratal

Eustatic sealevel changes

Tectonic subsidence

Sediment supply
These 3 factors controlled the relative sealevel changes and

whats called sediment accommodation, a new concept that related to

bathymetry stratigraphy unit such as: sequences, system tracts, adn
parasequences can be related directly with relative sea level
changes.it can be related with eustatic sealevel changes thats cyclic,
with considering the sediment supply speed and tectonic subsidence
speed.
By knowing the sinusoidal equation of eustatic sea level change
for a specific period, entering those 2 speed value, then at some point
in a sediments checks the stratigraphy sequence could be predicted,
including the system tracks which will be formed, the stratal
accumulation pattern, as well as the thickness, so it is possible to
simulate the sedmdimentaion in a computer, where the output is in
the form of a cross section of stratigraphy.
Ground deposits is largely determined by the relative sea level
changes, this will change the base level of erosion, and this
determines the presence of erosion or deposition of alluvial plain.
Deep marine deposition outside the influence of sealevel
changes will be determined indirectly by sealevel changes. Thus it is
clear that sequence stratigraphy is very deterministic, even predictive.

4.2. Law of Superposition vs Strata Concept

4.2.1. Law of Superposition
The law of Superposition states: Stratas that are below, was
older than the stratas above it. This principle has not changed, but
sharpen the sense of stratas and stratal plane as depositional
interfaces as isochronous time surface.
4.2.2. Strata Concept
In traditional stratigraphy strata definition is not too important,
even the definition does not exist, except on the law of Superposition,
which implicitly stated that the surface layer or boundary layer is the
limiting of time (upper the layer is always younger than the layer
below it) or as a surface in common time (Law 1 of Steno Principle)
Sequence stratigraphy, stated that strata is a similar sediment,
propagated by the medium (air/wind) in similar circumstances. More
emphatically stated that the surface between layers, also known as
depositional interfaces practically is the similar time surface and
these surface occur due to the stopping state dissemination of
sediments that are similar because:

Changed the type of deposited sediments

The lack of precipitation (non-depositional)

The presence of erosion

Thus, stratal surface represents a minimal time hiatus (minimum

time gap) or a small hiatus, so for practical purposes can be

considered as the surface time (isochronous time surface). In this case

the seismic horizons are considered also as the stratal surface or the
surface time.
In the traditional stratigraphy, the layer was often confounded
with the definition of lithology units. In this case layer sequence
stratigraphy may gradually change.

4.3.Lateral Continuity Principle vs Lateral Termination

This law traditionally stated that strata continues lateraly until
the strata wedges to the side of the basin or terminated.

The principle of stratal temination is not relevant anymore with

the second law of Steno which is: Law of Lateral Continuity of strata
stating that a strata continues laterally until it ends at the edge of the
basin. Sequence stratigraphy teaches that layer ends at the direction
of the terrestrial as well as towards the sea (basin). Thus arose the
term regarding the expiry:

Layer termination against the bottom layer (termination

base/base lapping) e.g: onlaping, downlap-ping, backstepping

Layer termination against the top layer (termination toward

top/toplapping) e.g: toplapping/oflapping, and truncation

Thus sequence stratigraphy emphasized there is termination of

the layers laterally is a principle (lateral termination of strata) of the
lateral continuity of strata. The 2nd law of Stenos is applicable
locally, which in the past were limited to the observation of outcrops
and drilling that was then projected on a regional basis.

4.4.Original Continuity Principle vs Clinoform

Traditionally sediments originally deposited horizontally, or
unparallel to the lap (or base of the basin). Later also recognized the
existence of the original slope, subparallel in the occurrence of
onlapping.
In Stratigraphy sequence the presence of oblique deposition on
clinoform (though only a few degrees only) in addition to the
horizontal is the basic principle, because this state is controlling
sedimentation and sequence stratigraphy in general. The principle of
the deposition on clinoform obviously does not comply with the
Stenos 3rd law which stated that deposition of sediment on the
original state of flat or horizontal (original Horizontality of strata).
Sequence stratigraphy teaches that layers are generally deposited on
tilted surface or so-called clinoform, although still recognize the
deposition in an horizontal

4.5.Vertical Accumulation vs Lateral Accumulation

In traditional stratigraphy, sedimentary layers piled or accumulated
vertically, even though recognized there is the shift in facies laterally
along the layer and the onlapping.
In sequence stratigraphy, princpally sedimentary layers accumulate
not only vertically but also laterally is a predominant process.

Sequnece stratigraphy in principle, recognize accumulated in vertical

(agradation), vertical and lateral (retrogradation) and lateral
(progradasi).
Lateral accumulation principle is also no longer in line with the
principle of Steno which implicitly underlined that the layer of
sediment piled vertically, which is derived from the principle of
original horizontality. Sequence stratigraphy based on the fact that
the accumulation of sediment mainly occurred in the side of the shelf
or the edges of the beach area, where the accumulation occurs
lateral. This concept is also familiar with the accumulation vertically
under certain circumstances e.g due to subsidence and compation.
Thus the sequence stratigraphy is actually the principle that the
buildup of sediment has lateral and vertical components, wherein the
horizontal component is more dominant. Because the two
components of this accumulation, the accumulation principle also
gives lateral-stacking pattern of the various types of bedding such as:

Stacking progradation (sigmoid pattern, tabular), which gives

a shift in both directions (onlaping and downlaping) or in one
direction (toward the ocean) (truncation or toplapping and

downlapping)
Stacking retrogradation which provide stacking direction (to

land, onlapping, and backstepping)

Stacking agradation (vertical stacking)

4.6.Unconformity Concept vs Stratal Discontinuity

The unconformity concept first proposed by James Hutton
(1785), in his ideas about the geological cycle. Unconformity is
evidence vertical uncontinuity of sedimentation, caused by tectonic
activities (such as: folding, followed by removal/orogenesa) or
tectonic activity like lifting and tilt or solely uplift only/epirogenesa.)

The term unconformity later develop into various types, such as:
disconformity, angular unconformity, non-conformity and so on. In
sequence stratigraphy, misalignment is one of stratal disconformity,
where fluctuations of realtive sea level is an important element. Here
is emphasized the existence of non-conformity vertically in layering
or stratal discontinuity. In this case stratal discontinuity implies the
existence of hiatus or a time which is not recorded long enough.
Forms of stratal discontinuity it is able forms:

The non-erosion surface (non-erosional surfaces).

Surface eroded
Forms of non-erosion surface in the form stratal discontinuity is

not known in traditional stratigraphy. Non-erosion forms include:

Surface without deposition (non-depositional surface), where

sediment

through

the

surface

without

any

significant

precipitation or erotion, referred to as sediment by passing,

(depostional hiatus.)

Surface expiry layer (surface of stratal termination), so

associated with the Principles of stratal termination, such as
onlap surface, downlap surface, toplap surface and the apparent
surface.
In sequence stratigraphy to note also that the absence of

deposition (surface of non-deposit), this is an important field of

stratigraphy and a principle called as type 2, also known as type 2
unconformity.
Surface erosion includes disharmony in the classic sense
(classical unconformity) and is associated with subaerial exposure
and the transgression. But besides that includes the field of

underwater erosion surface (surface of the sub-marine erosion), a

concept which does not exist in the traditional stratigraphy. In the
case of classical unconformity (surface of erosion with subaerial
exposure), also known as lack of harmony in the form of:

Discordance with truncation are in stratigraphic terms

traditionally known as angular unconformity.

Concordance with erosion valley (concordance with incised

valleys) are in stratigraphic terms traditionally known as
disconformity.
Should be clarified that the Indonesian term diskordansi (taken

from Dutch language discordantie, among others hoek-discordantie =

angular unconformity) and unconformity (English) translated as
unconformity. In this context discordance and concordance is defined
as the relationship between the layers, and do not need to be in a
relationship that implies the existence of unconformity hiatus. One
new concept is that the unconformity can continue laterally into
aligned surfaces (equivalent conformable surface) where there is no
stratal discontinuity.
From the explanation it is clear that there has been a shift in the
understanding or definition of unconformity, stratal discontinuity
even include other concepts that never existed in traditional
stratigraphic principles.

4.7.Cyclicity of Strata and Stratigraphy Classification System

The existence of stratigraphic cycle, actually has long been
known, especially Wheeler (1958) specifically discussed the
existence cyclotheme. However stratigraphic sequence is explicitly
stated that all sedimentary sequences can be analyzed as cyclical.

Although it also recognized the existence of cycles that occur alone

(autocyclus) as the displacement delta lobe, but most cycles xould be
explained increasing-decreasing sea levels which is eustatic and
global. Recognized also the process that is repeated (repetitive)
caused by tectonics, and which are episodic (at any time). In terms of
the incident and recurrent cycle, the stratigraphic sequence recognize
various levels or orders, each of which has a long or short period of
time. In the case of the cycle even at the level strata or called
parasequence, there is a high frequency cycle (order 4 or more), and
low frequency (order of 3 to 1), and this frequency is expressed in
tens of thousands - hundreds of millions of years. Superimpositioned
high frequency at low frequency so that the cycle is a complex shape
that curves (convolution). One of the important cycles in the
stratigraphic

sequence

called

sequence,

which

limits

the

unconformity which is sedimentation in 1 cycle down rising sea

levels. Portions of the cycle is called system tracts were divided into
lowstand (LST), trangressive (TST) and higstand system tracts
(HST).
One system comprises a set parasequence tract, which is a
genetically related units are interpreted also as a small cycle, which
limited the so-called marine flooding surfaces (MFS). Each small
cycles can be known in every sequence stratigraphy, and is recycled
order to 4 s / d to 6, while the cause is interpreted to climate change
and sea level on a small scale were associated with symptoms of
astronomical cycle as axial oblixity and orbit eccentricity and called
Milankovich cycles.
However stratigraphic sequence pay attention to the geological
phenomena that affect the order that is cyclic, such as tectonic
symptoms (orogenesa) that is looping (repetitive) and the symptoms
are episodic sedimentation process. Clear stratigraphy sequence has

provided an understanding of the new classification of the others at

all with what we know in traditional stratigraphy such as
lithostratigraphy

unit

(formation,

member,

group),

and

Chronostratigraphy (stage, epoch, etc.), which seems to be no

connection at all between units the stratigraphy, because the concept
or the way we observe stratigraphy activities already different
altogether, by using other criteria.

References
Haryanto, Iyan. 2003. Geologi Struktur. Jurusan Teknik Geologi, Universitas
Padjadjaran. Tidak diterbitkan
Sapiie, Benyamin, Agus H. Harlosumakso. 2012. Prinsip Dasar Geologi Struktur.
Laboratorium Geologi Dinamik. ITB Bandung
Komisi Sandi Stratigrafi, 1996. Sandi Stratigrafi Indonesia. Ikatan Ahli Geologi
Indonesia, Bandung.
Fleuty, M.J., 1964, The description of folds: Geological Association Proceedings,
v. 75, p. 461-492
Anonim.

Igneous

Rocks.

Diperoleh

26

November

2015,

dari

2015,

dari

2015,

dari

http://geology.com/rocks/igneous-rocks.shtml
Anonim.

Sedimentary

Rocks.

Diperoleh

24

November

http://geology.com/rocks/sedimentary-rocks.shtml
Anonim.

Metamorphic

Rocks.

Diperoleh

26

November

http://geology.com/rocks/metamorphic-rocks.shtml