EaES 455-7 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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 Sea-level change

• Relative sea-level change includes a global component

(eustasy) that is uniform worldwide and can be measured
relative to a fixed datum (e.g., the center of the Earth), and
regional to local components (isostasy, tectonism) that are
spatially variable
• Eustasy involves changes in ocean-basin volume, as well as
changes in ocean-water volume (amplitudes ~101–102 m)
• Tectono-eustasy (time scales of 10–100 Myr)
• Glacio-eustasy (time scales of 10–100 kyr)
• Isostasy refers to crustal movements that are a direct result of
loading and unloading by ice or water
• Glacio-isostasy
• Hydro-isostasy

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 Sea-level change

• Relative sea-level change includes a global component

(eustasy) that is uniform worldwide and can be measured
relative to a fixed datum (e.g., the center of the Earth), and
regional to local components (isostasy, tectonism) that are
spatially variable
• Eustasy involves changes in ocean-basin volume, as well as
changes in ocean-water volume (amplitudes ~101–102 m)
• Tectono-eustasy (time scales of 10–100 Myr)
• Glacio-eustasy (time scales of 10–100 kyr)
• Isostasy refers to crustal movements that are a direct result of
loading and unloading by ice or water
• Glacio-isostasy
• Hydro-isostasy

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 Sea-level change

• Tectonism includes a vast array of crustal movements, ranging

from large-scale uplifts and basins to small-scale faults
• Steric sea-level changes include density changes (temperature,
salinity) and dynamic changes (atmospheric pressure, ocean
currents, wind set-up), but these changes are typically on the
order of a few meters at the most
• The geoid exhibits lows and highs relative to the oblate
spheroid due to gravity anomalies; geoidal changes do occur
over time, but they are most likely slow

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 Sea-level change

• Since isostasy and tectonism are spatially variable, every

geographic location has a unique relative sea-level history
(RSL=E+I+T)
• Four characteristic RSL-curves associated with the last
deglaciation:
• Near-field sites (e.g., Hudson Bay)
• Ice-margin sites (e.g., Norwegian coast)
• Intermediate-field sites (e.g., mid-Atlantic coast)
• Far-field sites (most of the southern hemisphere)

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Old Sea Level
Accelerator mass spectrometer at
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
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 Sea-level change

• Since isostasy and tectonism are spatially variable, every

geographic location has a unique relative sea-level history
(RSL=E+I+T)
• Four characteristic RSL-curves associated with the last
deglaciation:
• Near-field sites (e.g., Hudson Bay)
• Ice-margin sites (e.g., Norwegian coast)
• Intermediate-field sites (e.g., mid-Atlantic coast)
• Far-field sites (most of the southern hemisphere)

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 2000 & 2007
Imageries
superposed

2009

1954 US Army map

 Sarkar et al.,
Quaternary Science
Review, 2009
BARASAT
 Sea-level change

• It is believed that eustatic cycles of different periods have

operated throughout the Phanerozoic:
• First-order (108 yr) and second-order (107 yr) cycles (primarily
tectono-eustatic)
• Third-order (106 yr) cycles (mechanism not well understood)
• Fourth-order (105 yr) and fifth-order (104 yr) cycles (primarily
glacio-eustatic)
• Glacio-eustasy has only controlled limited portions of Earth
history (e.g., the Carboniferous or Late Cenozoic icehouse world
as opposed to the Cretaceous greenhouse world)
• Whereas RSL change has a profound impact on the stratigraphic
evolution of numerous sedimentary environments (certainly
deltaic, coastal, and marine), the complex spatial pattern of RSL
change commonly yields responses that are out of phase
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 Sea-level change

• It is believed that eustatic cycles of different periods have

operated throughout the Phanerozoic:
• First-order (108 yr) and second-order (107 yr) cycles (primarily
tectono-eustatic)
• Third-order (106 yr) cycles (mechanism not well understood)
• Fourth-order (105 yr) and fifth-order (104 yr) cycles (primarily
glacio-eustatic)
• Glacio-eustasy has only controlled limited portions of Earth
history (e.g., the Carboniferous or Late Cenozoic icehouse world
as opposed to the Cretaceous greenhouse world)
• Whereas RSL change has a profound impact on the stratigraphic
evolution of numerous sedimentary environments (certainly
deltaic, coastal, and marine), the complex spatial pattern of RSL
change commonly yields responses that are out of phase
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