SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY

COURSE CODE: GEOL. 502

SEMESTER: 6TH

INSTRUCTOR: IMRAN AHMAD

 ONLINE LECTURE
04

SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHIC SURFACES

 SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHIC SURFACES
Introduction:
´ Prominent surfaces within sedimentary sequences formed due rise
and fall of sea level. These surfaces marks shift through time in
depositional region.

´ These surfaces are created by imterplay between sedimentation

and fluctuation in base level.

´ Sedimentary sections are subdivided by a variety of surfaces that

envelope & enclose discrete geometric bodies of sediment. The
partings with the greatest frequency are those in shales
but bedding planes are the commonest of these surfaces to
catch the geologists eye and are used by sequence stratigraphers
to interpret the origin of the sedimentary section.
´ In sequence of sedimentation related to base level fluctuation; three
main events are involved;
1. Onset (Begining) of Regression; accompanied by change in
sedimentation to erosion
2. End of Regression: It marks the shift from regression to transgression
3. End of Transgression: It marks the shidt from transgression to regression.
 SEQUENCE BOUNDARY
´ An unconformity (Sequence Boundary) is a “surface separating
older from younger strata along which there is evidence of
subaerial truncation or subaerial exposure, with a significant hiatus
indicated” Van Wagoner et al., 1990.

´ A correlative conformity is a bedding surface equivalent to the

age of maximum seaward erosion at a Sequence Boundary, but
with no evidence of a widespread hiatus.

´ sequences are enveloped by sequence boundaries (SB) that are

identified as significant erosional unconformities and their
correlative conformities. These boundaries are the product of a fall
in sea level that erodes the subaerially exposed sediment surface
of the earlier sequence or sequences.
´ Sequence Boundary is a prominent stratigraphic surface which indicates
two distinct processes operational at same time. First part of this
boundary is associated with sea level fall to its maximum position which
causes sub-aerial exposure of already deposited sediments, River erode
these sub-aerially exposed sediments and form an Erosional
Unconformity. River transport these eroded sediment to the ocean basin
and redeposit these sediments in deep basin in the form of reworked
sediments. This redeposition is also a prt of this boundary known as
Correlative Conformity. So Sequence Boundary is the combination of two
terms, Unconformity and its correlative conformity.
´ In the earlier literature two distinct types of sequence boundary were
recognized. Type 1 sequence boundaries equate to those formed during
a forced regression whereas Type 2 sequence boundaries are those
forced during a normal regression (Coe et al. 2002). It has been
demonstrated that the Type 1 and Type 2 unconformities can bound the
same sequence at different localities and are the products of different
rates of sedimentation and accommodation space (Posamentier and
Allen, 1999) for the same time interval.
 Type–1 Sequence Boundary
´ When sea level fall to its maximum fall position i.e. below the shelf
edge/off lay break. During maximum fall the river system will erode the
already deposited luncosolidated sediments and form an erosional valley
known as Incised Valley.
´ Incised Valley is a river erosional valley always form in the already
deposited shelfal marine sediments.
´ These Re-worked sediments form fan shape depositional bodies known as
Sub Marine Fans.
Type-1 sequence Boundary is Characterised by:
´ Relative sea-level fall at the offlap/shelf break.
´ Basinward and downwards shift in facies.
´ Basinward shift in coastal onlap; basinwards of the previous offlap break.
´ Fluvial incision, stream rejuvenation and subaerial erosion of previous
coastal plain.
´ Focus of sediment input into a basin.
´ Increase in sediment supply to the basin & decrease in Accomodation.
TYPE-1 SEQUENCE BOUNDARY
 TYPE-2 SEQUENCE BOUNDARY
Type-2 Sequence Boundary is Characterised by:
´ Basinward shift in coastal onlap towards but not beyond the
offlap/shelf break.
´ Onlap: Initial point of deposition. Point which indicate initiation of
deposition of any strata in a basin also known as proximal point of
deposition.
´ No relative sea-level fall below the offlap/shelf break.
´ Subaerial exposure of upper coastal plain.
´ Lacks fluvial incision (Development of Incised Valley), stream
rejuvenation and erosion of previous coastal plain (already
deposited sediments).
´ Increase in sediment supply to the basin margin - Aggradational
Basin Margin Wedge.
 TRANSGRESSIVE SURFACE
´ This is a marine-flooding surface that forms the first significant flooding
surface in a sequence. The Transgressive Surface marks the onset of the
period when the rate of creation of accommodation space is greater
that the rate of sediment supply.
´ When sea level rises after its maximum fall and covers shelfal area for the
first time, this marine flooding surface is known as Transgressive Surface.
 MAXIMUM FLOODING SURFACE (MFS)
´ A surface of deposition at the time the Shoreline is at its maximum
landward position (i.e. the time of maximum transgression) (Posamentier
& Allen, 1999)

´ The surface marks the time of maximum flooding or transgression of the

shelf and it separates the transgressive and highstand systems tract.

´ The mfs often mark the bounding surface between coarsening and/or
fining upward cycles and are used to relate these cycles to deepening
and shallowing in the geological section. It is synomous with the
maximum transgressive surface (Helland-Hansen and Martinsen, 1996)

´ Marine shelf and basinal sediments associated with this surface are the
result of slow rates of deposition by pelagic-hemipelagic sediments and
they are usually thin and fine grained. These fine sediments make up
the condensed section (Mitchum, 1977).
´ A thin marine stratigraphic interval characterized by very slow
depositional rates (<1-10 mm/yr) (Vail et al., 1984).
´ A condensed section often consists of hemipelagic and pelagic
sediments, starved of indigenous materials, and deposited on the middle
to outer shelf, slope, and basin floor during a period of maximum relative
sea-level rise and maximum transgression of the shoreline.
´ Because the clastic sedimentation rates are starved of the sediment from
the continental margin, the skeletal remains of pelagic fauna
preferentially accumulate to form condensed layers of fauna. These
condensed layers of fauna are often used as paleomarkers of time.
´ An MFS is often characterized by the presence of radioactive and often
organic rich shales, Glauconite, and hardgrounds. There are commonly
widespread thin bedded concentrations of fauna (condensed sections)
with high diversity.
´ An MFS can often be the only portion of a sedimentary cycle which is rich
in fauna.
´ The MFS is not commonly burrowed or bored.