2. Dr. Tark Hamilton Camosun College
Sedimentary Geology Geos 240 – Chapter 5 The Principles of Stratigraphy
Dr. Tark Hamilton
Camosun College

3. Correlation of Stratigraphy
This mainly works for bedded Sedimentary rocks
Correlation of rocks, beds, successions, fossils
Lithology: Lithostratigraphy
Biostratigraphy: widespread but short lived fossils
Chronostratigraphy: zircons, igneous tephra/dyke
Allostratigraphy: unconformity bounded packages
Sequence Stratigraphy: cycles, eustatic, genetic

4. Stratigraphy of Northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut
Atlantic Opens
Absaroka Series
Iapetus Closes
(Missing Permian)
GSA Bulletin; November 1976; v. 87; no. 11; p ; DOI: / (1976)87<1599:DGOBIA>2.0.CO;2 © 1976 Geological Society of America This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by MIALL, A. D. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation
Devonian geology of Banks Island, Arctic Canada, and its bearing on the tectonic development of the circum-Arctic region
ANDREW D. MIALL1
Kaskaskia Series
Bayou-Delta Facies
Givetian to Fammenian: Tiktaalik

5. Origins of Stratigraphy: Founders I
~1550CE Leonardo da Vinci: Tethyan marine fossils in Italian alps
1669 CE Nicolaus Steno: Original Horizontality, Superposition (younger on top of older beds)
~1750 CE James Hutton: Uniformitarianism (gradualism), Geological cycles (uplift/tilting, erosion. Sedimentation) & Deep Geological Time
~1815 CE William Smith: Principle of Faunal Succession, one of earliest Geological maps, Strata of England and Wales

6. Origins of Stratigraphy: Founders II
~1842 Alcide d’ Orbigny: Biological stages 10 – 100 Ma, evolution based assemblages. Crude biostratigraphy.
~1856 Albert Oppel: Biologic zones = range of a specific organism, higher resolution biostratigraphy.
~1917 Joseph Barrell: Base level or sea level changes will result in breaks (unconformities) genetic strat.
1963 Larry Sloss: Subaerial unconformities bound stratigraphic sequences. Allostratigraphy
~1960’s Harry Wheeler: Time distance diagrams: duration, extent and hiatus in strat. Sequences
1977 Peter Vail: Global Eustatic Sea Level changes & Global correlations on seismic strat. Who needs biostrat, local basins?

7. William “Strata” Smith: 1769-1839
Principal of Stratigraphic Association of Fossils (faunal succession)
1815 1st Geological Map of England
Canal Surveyor
1st Wollaston Medalist of the Geological Society of London

8. Cross Section of London Basin Jerome Harrison, 1882
Following in the footsteps of William “Strata” Smith

9. Correlation of Stratigraphy
Comparing & connecting stratigraphic successions between localities: trenches, cliffs, boreholes or across and between basins
Lithology: Lithostratigraphy, Original Triassic, 3 distinctive beds across the Alps. (Alberti’s Trias referred to the division of these strata into three units: the Bunter [or Buntsandstein], Muschelkalk (Limes), and Keuper (Marls), known as the “Germanic facies,” is mainly Continental. The type sections are now more widespread Marine facies based on ammonoids.

10. Muschelkalk-Keuper Boundary: Winterswijk Netherlands: H. W
Muschelkalk-Keuper Boundary: Winterswijk Netherlands: H.W. Oosterink et al 2006
Marls/Black Clays
Rhaetian/Liassic
Triassic sat between the better known Permian of the Continental Redbeds of the Zechsandstein (Zechstein Basin) and overlying fully Marine Jurassic. Originally a lithostratigraphic definition by Alberti in the German Alps for the succession Beige Sandstone overlain by White Limestone and finally by Black Marls. The disruption of these beds is due to Quaternary solution collapse in the underlying gypsum beds of the Permian Section (well below the level of the quarry and surface exposures).
Muschelkalk
Limestones
(Buntsandstein
Unexposed)

11. Correlation of Stratigraphy
Biostratigraphy: widespread but short lived fossils
Relative ages requires statistical numbers of fossils
Only good to +/- 1Ma (the average species lifespan)
Chronostratigraphy
Absolute radiometric dates from: zircons, apatites, igneous events, tephra-ash beds, U-Pb or 39Ar/40Ar
Magnetic Reversal Stratigraphy ≤ Cretaceous
Marine Stable Isotope: H/D, 16O/18O, 32S/34S, 12C/13C
Allostratigraphy: unconformity bounded packages
Sequence Stratigraphy: cycles, eustatic, genetic

12. 1800’s Faunal Succession & Correlation: Stephanoceras and Micraster Lower Jurassic (Midlands) & Upper Cretaceous Chalk Ammonite (Cephalopoda) & Echinoid (Heart Urchin, Echinodermata)

13. Biostratigraphy Dozens to hundreds of species
Gradual structural changes  evolution
Biozones (time), Stages (evolutionary differentiation)
Picky species nail the environment, quiet, rough, O2
FAD: First occurrence datum
Coincident Range (Concurrent species)
LAD: Last Occurrence Datum
Biocenose assemblages (living ecologies)
Thanatocenose assemblages (enviro-accumulations)

14. Chronostratigraphy
Post WWII, Harold Urey, U.Chicago, Solid Source Mass Specs, 238U  206Pb, 87Rb 87Sr & 87Sr/ 86Sr, Deuterium, Precambrian Atmosphere, Nobel Prize
Thermochronometry, Derek York U of T : Lunar rocks, Ar-39/40, thermal blocking temperatures

15. Chronostratigraphy: Radio-isotopes
U/Pb clocks from Zircon & Baddeleyite for Precambrian sediments, igneous cores & meta rims
Rb/Sr for intercalated Volcanics or feldspars for Mesozoic and older rocks (due to long half life and low Rb/Sr ratio)
K/Ar for Pliocene and older Volcanics
39/40Ar some sedimentary minerals like Glauconite or Fission Track for Pleistocene and older Volcanics
Disequilibrium Uranium series isotopes (Ra for Ca) for Pleistocene & older Carbonates, reefs, speleothems
Radioactive fallout correlation dating: 137Cs, 90Sr
Many of these techniques require special lithologies or minerals which aren’t present in all sedimentary beds. Ergo we can only bracket stratigraphy.

16. Allostratigraphy (Larry Sloss, 1963)
Major Unconformities bound packages of stratigraphy which correlate across and between continents
Caused by tectonic and global eustatic events, Ma long for North America:
Zuni
Absaroka
Kaskaskia
Tippecanoe
Sauk
Later Peter Vail of Exxon extended this to the Atlantic Basin mainly on eustatics alone & Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy
See p.264

17. Stratigraphic Variability for a Hypothetical Lithostratigraphy

18. Shale line to right edge
Relative Datum
flattened
Shale line to right edge
Log Shape Analysis:
Wiggle Matching
SP or Resistivity

19. 2 Methods of Defining Stratigraphy
Ordovician
Cambrian
Paleocene (Tertiary)
Maastrictian (Cretaceous)
Cow Head Breccia: Green Point Newfoundland
K/T Boundary Clay, Frenchman Valley, Saskatchewan
A) Nothing Happened or B) Widespread Distinctive Event

20. Porous Gassy “Milk River” Sandstones: Shallow Cretaceous Gas Play in Southern Alberta, Western Canada Basin using Gamma Ray and an Electrical Resistivity Log.
The high resistivity is due to the gas displacing the brine, making a resistive layer, with the classical signature of a “gas sand”.
The 1st White Specks is a Volcanic Ash Marker Bed, Back arc K rich ash with enough Se to cause birth defects if you drink from this horizon!

21. Zuni Absaroka Kaskaskia Tippecanoe Sauk
Wheeler Diagram for N.Am. Interior: Zuni, Absaroka, Kaskaskia, Tippecanoe, Sauk
Note that the US Cordillera is missing the Proterozoic and Triassic through Jurassic
Tippecanoe
Sauk

22. Allostratigraphic Breaks in Rift Basin Formations are Lithostratigraphic

23. Subdivision of Regional Cambro-Ordovician Strata: by Litho & Allostrat.
Most strata are limestones and dolostones with interbedded sandstones and shales. (Jeeze there must have been some exposed shield around somewhere to the NW, Eh?)
Tippecanoe is Upper Ordovician – Silurian over
Sauk = Upper Cambrian – Middle Ordovician

24. Biozones
Since Albert Oppel’s introduction of the concept for the range of a single species, this concept has grown to include temporal assemblages defined by tens to hundreds of species. Since DSDP & ODP work on Cretaceous through Modern marine microfossils the resolution is now about 1Ma. There remain regional disparities. Walter Blow’s Carribbean succession and stages clashes with Bolli’s definitions in the Mediterranean and this is even for Planktonic Foraminifera. There is also problem in tying Terrestrial facies to Marine Records as young as the Pleistocene Holocene boundary. Mammoths and Forams seldom partied together! Which type section do we use?

25. Biozones: Maastrichtian Chalk NW Europe
Concurrent Range Biozones
# = Species
Concurrent Range
Biozones

29. Siccar Point