Contents

1
Contents

• Introduction
• Sedimentology concepts
• Fluvial environments
• Deltaic environments
• Coastal environments
• Offshore marine environments

• Sea-level change
• Sequence stratigraphy concepts
• Marine sequence stratigraphy
• Nonmarine sequence stratigraphy
• Basin and reservoir modeling
• Reflection

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Reflection

• Why do we care about all this?
• Sedimentary geology is a key element in the
  understanding of Earth history in a very broad
  sense (i.e., this can include everything from
  plate tectonics to global environmental change)
• Apart from traditional interests in economic
  sedimentary geology (e.g., oil, gas, minerals),
  environmental sedimentary geology (e.g., coastal
  management, groundwater pollution) is becoming
  increasingly important

3
Reflection

• The 1960s and 1970s saw a decline of interest in
  classical stratigraphy and an emphasis on
  autogenic processes within depositional
  environments (process-oriented sedimentology,
  facies models)
• The 1980s and 1990s saw a revival of stratigraphy
  and a focus on allogenic processes (sequence
  stratigraphy)
• Quaternary environments play an increasingly
  important role, since they allow a relatively
  straightforward inference of environments of
  deposition, including their relationships to
  independently inferred changes in climate, sea
  level, and tectonism by means of numerical dating
  techniques
• Wherever possible, paleoecological evidence
  should be utilized in facies analysis or
  sequence-stratigraphic analysis

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Reflection

• The 1960s and 1970s saw a decline of interest in
  classical stratigraphy and an emphasis on
  autogenic processes within depositional
  environments (process-oriented sedimentology,
  facies models)
• The 1980s and 1990s saw a revival of stratigraphy
  and a focus on allogenic processes (sequence
  stratigraphy)
• Quaternary environments play an increasingly
  important role, since they allow a relatively
  straightforward inference of environments of
  deposition, including their relationships to
  independently inferred changes in climate, sea
  level, and tectonism by means of numerical dating
  techniques
• Wherever possible, paleoecological evidence
  should be utilized in facies analysis or
  sequence-stratigraphic analysis

6
Reflection

• Sequence stratigraphy can be considered to
  encompass two main components
• Development of generic and unifying models of
  sedimentary basin filling
• Development of global eustasy models
• The first can potentially provide new and basic
  understanding, including improved capabilities to
  make subsurface predictions the latter has
  proven to be extremely difficult at best
• The fundamental importance of basic sedimentology
  (i.e., facies analysis) for sequence stratigraphy
  is in danger of being overlooked (sequence-strat
  fundamentalism lingers everywhere!)

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Reflection

• Sequence stratigraphy can be considered to
  encompass two main components
• Development of generic and unifying models of
  sedimentary basin filling
• Development of global eustasy models
• The first can potentially provide new and basic
  understanding, including improved capabilities to
  make subsurface predictions the latter has
  proven to be extremely difficult at best
• The fundamental importance of basic sedimentology
  (i.e., facies analysis) for sequence stratigraphy
  is in danger of being overlooked (sequence-strat
  fundamentalism lingers everywhere!)

9
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