Strata and time
Subtitle: probing the gaps in our understanding
By: edited by D.G. Smith, Truro, UK, R.J. Bailey, Southwell, UK, P.M. Burgess, Royal Holloway University of London, UK, and A.J. Fraser, Imperial college London, UK
Series: Geological society special publication -- 404; Geological Society special publication -- no. 404.
Publisher: Geological Society
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 325
ISBN-13: 9781862396555
Subjects: Stratigraphic Geology
Description: The superposition of stratified rocks is an unmistakable manifestation of the history of sedimentary processes through deep time. However, the relationship between the preserved strata of the rock record and the passage of geological time, indisputable in principle, is unknowable in detail; incompleteness is an essential property of the record. That gaps exist at all scales in sedimentary successions is easily demonstrated from consideration of sediment accumulation rates, and expectations of continuity and completeness at any scale are correspondingly inadvisable. Locating and quantifying the gaps in the record is, however, very much less straightforward. Predictive modelling of strata - essential for their practical exploitation - requires such geohistorical understanding, yet over-simplified assumptions about how time is represented in rock can still lead to inadequate or even false conclusions. The contributions to this volume describe a range of practical studies, theoretical investigations, and numerical experiments in which the nature of the strata-time relationship is explored. --
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Strata and time: probing the gaps in our understanding; title: Updating uniformitarianism: stratigraphy as just a set of 'frozen accidents'; title: GSSPs, global stratigraphy and correlation; title: Scaling laws for aggradation, denudation and progradation rates: the case for time-scale invariance at sediment sources and sinks; title: The power-law attributes of stratigraphic layering and their possible significance; title: The importance of doing nothing: stasis in sedimentation systems and its stratigraphic effects; title: Investigating the occurrence of hierarchies of cyclicity in platform carbonates; title: Cyclostratigraphy: data filtering as a source of spurious spectral peaks; title: Stratigraphic continuity and fragmentary sedimentation: the success of cyclostratigraphy as part of integrated stratigraphy; title: Synthesis of time-stratigraphic relationships and their impact on hydrocarbon reservoir distribution and performance, Bridport Sand Formation, Wessex Basin, UK; title: 4D Wheeler diagrams: concept and applications; title: Using the voids to fill the gaps: caves, time, and stratigraphy; title: More gaps than shale: erosion of mud and its effect on preserved geochemical and palaeobiological signals; title: More gap than record? Qualitative and quantitative assessment of stratigraphic gaps in a field based study, with examples from the Lower Silurian Pentamerus Beds of Shropshire, England and the Lower Ordovician Ribband Gp of County Wexford, Ireland; title: British Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) coal-bearing sequences: where is the time?; title: Use of carbon accumulation rates to estimate the duration of coal seams and the influence of atmospheric dust deposition on coal composition.