--> Testing the Synchroneity of Sequence Boundaries: The Role of Chronologic Resolution in Stratigraphic Correlations, by A. Marie-Pierre; #90986 (1994).

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Abstract: Testing the Synchroneity of Sequence Boundaries: The Role of Chronologic Resolution in Stratigraphic Correlations

Aubry Marie-Pierre

Based on the postulate that sequence stratigraphy reflects eustasy, sequence boundaries are proposed as means of global correlations. As a

result, unconformities on different basin margins are currently stratigraphically correlated and genetically related based on the Mesozoic-Cenozoic cycle chart of Vail and his collaborators. However, there is, as yet, no direct, irrefutable demonstration that any particular unconformity can be traced between widely separated basins. Establishing synchroneity between unconformities on different margins is a prerequisite for demonstrating that they are genetically correlative and reflect eustatic changes. This requires both high stratigraphic and chronologic resolution. Stratigraphic resolution is generally regarded as synonymous with chronologic resolution. However, the advent of integrated global polarity time scales (GPTS) has revealed that the relationship between the stratigraphic ecord and geological time is not a simple one. In allowing an evaluation of the continuity of the stratigraphic record, such scales permit a considerable improvement in stratigraphic analysis, and it is becoming clear that the temporal interpretation of stratigraphic sections is a fundamental requirement for interpreting basinal history. While the GPTS afford a basically infinite resolution in temporally continuous stratigraphic sections, resolution decreases with the incompleteness of the stratigraphic record. The uncertainty of the age of particular surfaces may vary from a few tens of thousand years to several million years. The Cenozoic GPTS, which are derived from the sea floor lineation pattern, have no equivalent for the Mesozoic and at present there is no means for evaluating the temporal continuity of Mesozoic stratigraphic sections in a systematic fashion. Thus, while it is possible to test the validity of sequence stratigraphy as a tool for long distance correlations and to determine its significance for the Cenozoic, we are still a long way from having the stratigraphic/chronologic resolution necessary to test the Mesozoic record.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994