Application Of Modern Stratigraphic Techniques

Much has been written and debated about the various methodologies applied to modern stratigraphic analysis and the ever increasing complexity of terminologies. However, there exist numerous stratigraphic techniques that are reliant upon precise, quantitative, reproducible data, rather than qualitative interpretive stratigraphic methodologies. Such stratigraphic techniques are applied in an entirely pragmatic non-biased manner within the petroleum industry to provide enhanced stratigraphic understanding of petroleum systems. The petroleum industry is a key driver behind the development of new stratigraphic techniques and a major provider of new stratigraphic data, which has resulted in several of these new techniques having been developed as a requirement to the industry. Furthermore, because techniques, such as isotope chemostratigraphy, elemental chemostratigraphy, magnetic susceptibility stratigraphy, numerical biostratigraphy and heavy mineral stratigraphy are based around precise, quantified and reproducible analytical data, they provide an independent means to test the more interpretive stratigraphic methodologies. This volume attempts an overview of stratigraphic methodologies, but largely focuses on data-generative stratigraphic techniques such as chemostratigraphy, magnetic susceptibility stratigraphy, numerical biostratigraphy and heavy mineral stratigraphy. Where appropriate, each paper discusses data generation methods including sample preparation and analytical methods as well outlining data interpretation methods. This is followed by case histories that demonstrate how those data are used to resolve stratigraphic problems, commonly using material derived from petroleum basins around the World.

Stratigraphy has come to be indispensable to nearly all branches of the earth sciences, assisting such endeavors as charting the course of evolution, understanding ancient ecosystems, and furnishing data pivotal to finding strategic mineral resources. This book focuses on traditional and innovative stratigraphy techniques and how these can be used to reconstruct the geological history of sedimentary basins and in solving manifold geological problems and phenomena.

A Comprehensive review of modern stratigraphic methods. The stratigraphic record is the major repository of information about the geological history of Earth, a record stretching back for nearly 4 billion years. Stratigraphic studies fill out our planet’s plate-tectonic history with the details of paleogeography, past climates, and the record of evolution, and stratigraphy is at the heart of the effort to find and exploit fossil fuel resources. Modern stratigraphic methods are now able to provide insights into past geological events and processes on time scales with unprecedented accuracy and precision, and have added much to our understanding of global tectonic and climatic processes. It has taken 200 years and a modern revolution to bring all the necessary developments together to create the modern, dynamic science that this book sets out to describe. Stratigraphy now consists of a suite of integrated concepts and methods, several of which have considerable predictive and interpretive power. The new, integrated, dynamic science that Stratigraphy has become is now inseparable from what were its component parts, including sedimentology, chronostratigraphy, and the broader aspects of basin analysis.

A one-stop practical guide to foraminifera with numerous case studies demonstrating their applications, for graduate students, micropalaeontologists and industry professionals.

Advances in Sequence Stratigraphy, Volume Two covers current research across a wide range of stratigraphic disciplines, providing information on the most recent developments for the geoscientific research community. Chapters in this volume include Sequence Stratigraphy – Oman, Sequence Stratigraphy and diagenesis, Sequence Stratigraphy of Siliciclastic Systems, Upper Devonian Biostratigraphy, Event Stratigraphy and Late Fransian Kellwasser Extinction Bio-events in the Iowa Basin: Western Euramerica, Sea-level change and Sequence Stratigraphy, Sequence Stratigraphy: A Material-based Approach Versus A Time-Based Approach, and Anisian-Ladinian marker horizon: Implications for sequence stratigraphy and intra-tethyan correlation. This fully commissioned review publication aims to foster and convey progress in stratigraphy, including geochronology, magnetostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, event-stratigraphy, isotope stratigraphy, astrochronology, climatostratigraphy, seismic stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, ice core chronology, cyclostratigraphy, palaeoceanography, sequence stratigraphy, and more. Contains contributions from leading authorities in the field Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field Aims to foster and convey progress in stratigraphy, including geochronology, magnetostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, event-stratigraphy, and more

The principal aim of this book is to provide a wide range of information and a useful reference for researchers interested to investigate heavy mineral assemblages in different geological settings and for a variety of purposes. The methodological developments achieved in recent years for the identification of heavy minerals in a wide grain-size range are illustrated. All factors that affect heavy mineral concentration and relative proportions, including hydraulic sorting, mechanical abrasion, chemical weathering, and post-depositional dissolution, and all factors able to introduce analytical, environmental, or diagenetic bias are thoroughly addressed. A proper integration of multiple techniques including bulk sediment, multi-mineral, and single-mineral methods are discussed by renowned authors in their invited contributions.

This book is intended to complement the author's 1996 book "The geology of fluvial deposits", not to replace it. The book summarizes methods of mapping and interpretation of fluvial depositional systems, with a detailed treatment of the tectonic, climatic and eustatic controls on fluvial depositional processes. It focuses on the preserved, ancient depositional record and emphasizes large-scale (basin-scale) depositional processes. Tectonic and climatic controls of fluvial sedimentation and the effects of base-level change on sequence architecture are discussed. Profusely illustrated and with an extensive reference to the recent literature, this book will be welcomed by the student and professional geologist alike.