Strata and Time: Probing the Gaps in Our Understanding
Product code: SP404
Print publication date: 03/06/2015
Geological Society of London, GSL Special Publications, Earth and Solar System History, Stratigraphy
Type: Book (Hardback)
Binding: Hardback
ISBN: 9781862396555
Author/Edited by: Edited by D.G. Smith, R.J. Bailey, P.M. Burgess and A.J. Fraser
Weight: 0.91kg
Number of pages: 325
Online publication date: 21/04/2015
Lyell Collection URL: https://www.lyellcollection.org/toc/sp/404/1
£120.00
Log in for your member priceFull Description
Special Publication 404
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.
Cover image: ‘Hutton's unconformity’, a lino print by Jean Slee-Smith.
Acknowledgements
SMITH, D. G., BAILEY, R. J., BURGESS, P. M. & FRASER, A. J. Strata and time: probing the gaps in our understanding
Continuity, completeness, and the Geological Time Scale
MIALL, A. D. Updating uniformitarianism: stratigraphy as just a set of ‘frozen accidents’
SMITH, A. G., BARRY, T., BOWN, P., COPE, J., GALE, A., GIBBARD, P., GREGORY, J., HOUNSLOW, M., KEMP, D., KNOX, R., MARSHALL, J., OATES, M., RAWSON, P., POWELL, J. & WATERS, C. GSSPs, globalstratigraphy and correlation
Gaps, fractals and scaling
SADLER, P. M. & JEROLMACK, D. J. Scaling laws for aggradation, denudation and progradation rates: the case for time-scale invariance at sediment sources and sinks
BAILEY, R. J. The power-law attributes of stratigraphic layering and their possible significance
TIPPER, J. C. The importance of doing nothing: stasis in sedimentation systems and its stratigraphic effects
Stratal hierarchies and cycles
POLLITT, D. A., BURGESS, P. M. & WRIGHT, V. P. Investigating the occurrence of hierarchies of cyclicity in platform carbonates
VAUGHAN, S., BAILEY, R. J. & SMITH, D. G. Cyclostratigraphy: data filtering as a source of spurious spectral peaks
HILGEN, F. J., HINNOV, L. A., ABDUL AZIZ, H., ABELS, H. A., BATENBURG, S., BOSMANS, J. H. C., DE BOER,
B., HÜSING, S. K., KUIPER, K. F., LOURENS, L. J., RIVERA, T., TUENTER, E., VAN DE WAL, R. S. W., WOTZLAW, J.-F. & ZEEDEN, C. Stratigraphic continuity and fragmentary sedimentation: the success of cyclostratigraphy as part of integrated stratigraphy
Strata and time in the field and subsurface
HAMPSON, G. J., MORRIS, J. E. & JOHNSON, H. D. Synthesis of time-stratigraphic relationships and their impact on hydrocarbon reservoir distribution and performance, Bridport Sand Formation, Wessex Basin, UK
QAYYUM, F., DE GROOT, P., HEMSTRA, N. & CATUNEANU, O. 4D Wheeler diagrams: concept and Applications
PLOTNICK, R. E., KENIG, F. & SCOTT, A. C. Using the voids to fill the gaps: caves, time, and stratigraphy
TRABUCHO-ALEXANDRE, J. More gaps than shale: erosion of mud and its effect on preserved geochemical and palaeobiological signals
CROSSLEY, J. D. & CLARK, H. E. 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
SCOTT, A. C. & STEPHENS, R. S. British Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) coal-bearing sequences: where is the time?
LARGE, D. J. & MARSHALL, C. Use of carbon accumulation rates to estimate the duration of coal seams and the influence of atmospheric dust deposition on coal composition
Index
