Ages of Maximum Flooding Surfaces, Sequences Boundaries, Third and Fourth Order Depositional Sequences in the Cenozoic and Mesozoic Worldwide

W. W. Wornardt, Jr.
Micro-Strat Inc., Houston, TX

The key to recognizing age dating and sub-dividing third and fourth order depositional sequences is the maximum flooding surface. An age designation of this surface is extremely important in seismic sequence stratigraphic analysis.

In SEPM special publication No. 60, 1998, “Mesozoic and Cenozoic Sequence Stratigraphy of European Basins”, Hardenbol et al. recognized and dated 221 sequence boundaries from the Triassic to Recent. These sequence boundaries appeared on four “Sequence Chrono-stratigraphy/Biochronostratigraphy” charts that were included in this SEPM publication. On these charts they recognized 221 third order “SEQUENCES” bounded at the base and top with a sequence boundary. These sequence boundaries were designated by the first two, three or four letters of the stage name associated with the sequence boundary and a numerical age in Ma.

Within each sequence, Hardenbol et al., 1998, indicated the position of the maximum flooding surface with a dashed line but choose not to age date these surfaces on the Cenozoic, Cretaceous and Jurassic charts. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to recognize and date the Maximum Flooding Surfaces in Ma in the Cenozoic, Cretaceous and Jurassic and to assign a specific numerical age and letter designation to each of these maximum flooding surfaces. As such, the Maximum Flooding Surfaces will be assigned one specific age, rather than different numerical ages for the same boundary, in published papers.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90901©2001 GCAGS, Annual Meeting, Shreveport, Louisiana