Current sea floor

Walther’s law
• Walther (1894):
“The various deposits of the same
facies areas and similarly the sum of
the rocks of different facies areas are Levin, 2005
Outcrop or core
formed beside each other in space,
though in cross-section we see them SL rise Shale
lying on top of each other. As with
biotopes, it is a basic statement of far-
Silt
reaching significance that only those
Sand
facies and facies areas can be Silt
superimposed primarily which can be
observed beside each other at the Shale
present time.” SL fall

Or Bialik, 2020 Schlumberger-Private

 Leave “original horizontality” at the door

Or Bialik, 2020 Schlumberger-Private

 Leave “original horizontality” at the door
“original horizontality” is still completely valid in far from shore deep
marine settings where no contourites are present – which is still a fairly
large part of earth’s surface.
But for our discussion of continental shelves and slopes – it is not the
case.

Or Bialik, 2020 Schlumberger-Private

 Deposition on a slope
• The underlaying composition
and thickness of the earths crust
at the transition from land to sea
form a gradient – which manifest
in a slope.
• Slopes produces gravimetric
gradients, resulting in non
uniform deposition.

Or Bialik, 2020 Schlumberger-Private

 Sedimentary sequences
What is a sequence?
• Sloss (1949): a stratigraphic unit
bounded by large-magnitude,
regional unconformities.

Embry, 2009

Or Bialik, 2020 Schlumberger-Private