Review of

Sequence Stratigraphy Concepts

Rick Sarg
Sequence Stratigraphy

• That branch of stratigraphy which subdivides the rock

record using a succession of depositional sequences
composed of genetically related strata as regional and
interregional correlative units. - Haq et al., 1988
Building Blocks of Sequence Stratigraphy

Superposition Steno, 1669

Unconformities Hutton, 1788

Faunal Succession Smith, 1800

Facies Succession Walther, 1893

Cycles Spatial Wheeler, Sloss, 1960䇻s

Scale
Vail, 1970䇻s
Driving Concepts

• Time lines come from physical stratigraphy

– Facies are interpreted within the time-stratigraphic framework
determined from bedding surface correlations.
Shallow-Marine Parasequence
 䇻s Law of Facies Succession
Walther䇻
Driving Concepts

• Seismic reflections follow real physical surfaces in the

rocks
– They DO NOT follow the massive time transgressive
formational boundaries
Western Escarpment Guadalupe Mountains
Depositional Sequences

• Conformable Succession of Genetically Related

Strata, bounded at top and base by
• Unconformities (surfaces of erosion) or their
• Correlative Conformities (surface lacking) evidence of
erosion
 䇻s Law - The Exception ?
Walther䇻
Depositional Sequence Surfaces

• Sequence Boundaries
– basinwide marine onlap - basin/lower slope, coastal
onlap-upper slope/shelf
– truncated facies succession
– surfaces of erosion and/or nondeposition
– minor-major amounts of subaerial exposure over
platform/shelf
– may show significant biostratigraphic break on
shelf/platform
– overlain, in places, by basin-restricted wedges (LST䇻s)
 The Accommodation Concept

Subsidence + Sea Level = Space Available to Deposit Sediment

(i.e., Accommodation)
Systems Tracts & Sequences

Lowstand
Transgressive
Highstand
Western Escarpment Guadalupe Mountains
Brushy Canyon Onlap - Western Escarpment
Prograding Complex - Cutoff Mountain
Depositional Sequence Surfaces

• Maximum Flooding Surfaces

– maximum shelfward extent of the shoreline facies
– significant biostratigraphic boundaries
– planktonic biota peak
– omission surface or hardground development in basin
– underlain by transgressive systems tract
– overlain by highstand systems tract
A Condensed Section

• Consists of: Hemipelagic or pelagic sediment

starved of terrigenous material
• Deposited on: The middle to outer shelf and basin
floor
• During: The Period of most rapid rate of relative sea
level rise and maximum transgression of the
shoreline
Sequence Stratigraphy First Principles

• Sequence analysis divides stratal packages into

chronostratigraphic units
• SB䇻s can be dated biostratigraphically
• Sequence boundaries are regional onlap surfaces
• Each sequence is composed of systems tracts - linked
contemporaneous depositional systems
• A Type 1 sequence boundary occurs at the base of the
lowstand systems tract. A Type 2 boundary occurs at
the base of the shelf-margin systems tract
• The physical boundary between the transgressive and
the highstand systems tracts is the maximum flooding
surface
Sequence Boundaries - Who Do We Follow?