Sequence stratigraphers seek to interpret the sedimentary

record with respect to rates of eustatic sea-level change,

tectonic subsidence, and sediment supply. It offers a way to
interpret changes in sedimentary environment and
sedimentation rate, the ability to recognize significant
breaks in deposition, and a means for correlation that can
exceed the resolution of biostratigraphy.

ACCOMMODATION
The heart of sequence stratigraphy lies in the concept of
accommodation which is defined as the space available for
sedimentation (Jervey 1988, Van Wagoner et al. 1990). Changes
in accommodation are reflected by the sum of changes in
eustatic sea level and tectonic subsidence. These two
processes define a vertical envelope with the sea surface at
the top and the basement of igneous metamorphic rocks at its
base. This upper surface can move up or down relative to the
center of the earth as eustatic sea level changes. The lower
surface can also move up or down relative to the center of
the earth in response to tectonic forces, such as stretching
of the lithosphere, heating or cooling the lithosphere, and
tectonic loading, such as the emplacement of thrust sheets or
volcanic arcs (Allen and Allen 1990). The volume defined by
these two surfaces is known as relative sea level and total
accommodation.
The volume defined by these two moving surfaces is filled
by a combination of water and sediment, whose proportions
change over time. As the volume of water or sediment changes,
the weight on the underlying lithosphere changes and causes
an isostatic response. In addition, an increase in the
thickness of sediment typically causes compaction of
underlying sediment. Compaction and isostatic subsidence
allow additional sediment to accumulate.
Any changes in the rates of eustatic sea level or
tectonic subsidence must be matched by variations in the rate
of water-depth change or sediment accumulation. In most
cases, the effects of eustatic sea-level change and tectonic
subsidence in any restricted geographic area cannot be
distinguished, such that sequence stratigraphers consequently
focus on changes in relative sea level rather than the far
more difficult task of isolating eustasy and tectonic
subsidence. This approach also reflects a departure from
traditional ways of interpreting the stratigraphic record,
which focused on the position of eustatic sea level, rather
than its rate of change.
Water depth is the distance from the ocean (or lake)
surface to the top of the sediment pile. Relative sea level
is the distance from the ocean surface to the ocean surface
to the base of the sedimentary package, that is, the top of
the basement. Eustatic sea level is the distance from the
ocean surface to the center of the earth or some other fixed
reference point (for the class, it will be the center of the
earth).
Changes in sea level may or may not be manifested in
changes in water depth. For example, a relative rise in sea
level will produce net shallowing if sedimentation is more
rapid than the relative rate of sea-level rise, no change in
depth if the two rates are equal, and deepening if the rate
of sedimentation is less than the rate of relative sea-level
rise. Likewise, changes in water depth may or may not be
associated with changes in sea level. Shallowing, for
example, could occur during sedimentation in a period of no
relative rise in sea level, provided that the rate of
sedimentation exceeds the rate of subsidence. Many ‘sea-level
curves’ are really water-depth curves, and, as a result, they
may unsurprisingly conflict with similarly constructed curves
from other regions (Jonhson et al. 1989). The technique of
‘backstripping’ solves the accommodation space equation
through time and is the most reliable means of generating
true relative eustatic sea-level curves (e.g. Bond et al.
1983; Kominz et al. 1998).

FACIES AND BEDSETS

Sequence stratigraphy is useful for understanding changes in
facies through time and laterally through a sedimentary
basin. From a sequence stratigraphic perspective, a facies
is best defined as a beset, a series of beds, with the same
composition, texture, and sedimentary structures. For
example, a bedset in a storm-dominated offshore transition
setting would consist of alternating beds of sandstone and
mudstone that form fining-upward couplets and contain
sedimentary structures formed under oscillatory and combined
flow, such as hummocky cross-stratification and wave ripple
lamination. This would be distinguished from an upper
shoreface bedset, which would consist of beds of sandstone
dominated by large-scale trough cross-stratification.
This approach to facies avoids characterizations at too
fine of a scale, such as treating microfacies or lithology as
facies, or at too coarse of a scale, such as treating any
sandstone interval as a facies, without regard to its
internal structures. Because beds within a bedset reflect a
similar set of depositional processes, a bedset becomes a
good descriptor of a sedimentary environment characterized by
a limited set of depositional processes.
The contacts between bedsets can be either gradational or
sharp. Gradational contacts indicate a Waltherian
relationship, that is, that the environments in which the two
bedsets were deposited must have been laterally adjacent
originally. Sharp contacts generally indicate that the two
bedsets were not deposited in adjacent environments and that
some period of non-deposition or erosion occurred after
deposition of the lower bedset but before the deposition of
the upper bedset. This period of erosion or non-deposition
could represent purely local processes, such as the migration
of a fluvial channel, which might superimpose a channel
bottom bedset on top of a floodplain bedset, but it may also
reflect a larger-scale cessation of deposition, such as the
formation of an unconformity or condensed section.

PARASEQUENCES AND FLOODING SURFACES

Sequence stratigraphy recognizes two fundamental types of
sedimentary cycles, known as parasequences and sequences.
Although their names might suggest that parasequences are
merely small-scale sequences, neither is defined by the
thickness of strata or the amount of time represented. What
distinguishes the two is the nature of the surfaces that
delimit the top and bottom of the cycle.
Parasequences are defined as a relatively conformable
successions of bedsets bounded by marine flooding surfaces,
which are sharp contacts that separate an overlying deeper-
water facies from an underlying shallower-water facies
(Elrick 1995; Van Wagoner et al. 1990). In this context,
relatively conformable means that any internal breaks in
deposition are much shorter than the parasequence itself.
Because parasequences are internally relatively conformable,
Walther’s law applies, and bedsets within parasequences show
the gradational contacts characteristic of facies that were
deposited in environments originally next to one another. For
example, in a parasequence deposited on a wave-dominated
shelf, a bedset characteristic of the lower shoreface would
pass gradationally upward into a bedset from an upper
shoreface environment. The upper and lower bounding surfaces
of a parasequence are disconformable, such that Walther’s law
does not hold across them. For example, a parasequence capped
by an upper shoreface facies might be abruptly overlain by
lower shoreface or offshore facies, with no gradational
transition between them. Any sedimentary cycle that is
relatively conformable internally and bounded by flooding
surfaces is a parasequence.
Many, but not all, parasequences share two other
features. First, most parasequences display a shallowing-
upward succession of facies. Even in cases where a deepening-
upward portion is present near the base of the parasequence,
it is typically thin and the parasequence is still highly
asymmetrical and dominated by shallowing. Second, most
parasequences are commonly on the scale of a meter to ten
meter thick. Based on the thickness of most parasequences,
they are commonly interpreted to reflect durations of tens to
hundred of thousands of years.
Parasequences are interpreted to reflect a single episode
of progradation, terminated by the formation of a marine
flooding surface. The episode of progradation is generally
thought to record relatively slow rates of relative sea-level
rise or a still stand in relative sea level, during which
sediment accumulates more rapidly than accommodation space is
created. This type of progradation is known as normal
regression.
Flooding surfaces commonly display other features beyond
the sharp juxtaposition of relatively deep-water on
relatively shallow-water facies. Flooding surfaces may be
mantled by a transgressive lag of wood, bone, shells, and
mud-rip coasts produced by minor erosion of the seafloor.
Flooding surfaces may exhibit minor erosional relief,
typically of a meter or less, but these erosional surfaces
are often nearly planar. Some of this erosion may be
generated by transgressive ravinement, that is, erosion in
the upper shoreface as the shoreline moves landward, but
erosion on the shelf can be generated by repeated storms
while sedimentation rates are near to zero. Flooding surfaces
also commonly show evidence of this slow net sedimentation,
such as burrowed horizons, accumulations of shells, early
cementation, mineralization with iron or phosphate, and
accumulation of volcanic ash.
Flooding surfaces reflect the formation of accommodation
space while the rate of sedimentation is nearly zero. Three
known mechanisms can produce this combination: (1) rapid
increase in the rate of eustatic sea-level rise, accompanied
by a temporary shutdown in sedimentation, such as through
trapping of sediments in estuaries or inhibition of carbonate
sediment production; (2) earthquake-induced subsidence, in
which accommodation is produced within a few minutes and
rates of sedimentation are necessarily low; and (3)
autocyclic mechanisms, such as delta switching, in which
areas where a delta lobe is actively prograding would be
forming a parasequence, while nearby areas undergoing delta
abandonment would experience the formation of a flooding
surface. This last mechanism underscores that, at least for
some mechanisms, parasequence boundaries can have only local
correlation (i.e. time-correlation) potential. For the first
two mechanisms, however, parasequence boundaries could be
correlatable over much broader distances.
PARASEQUENCE SETS AND STACKING PATTERNS
Parasequences typically occur in groups that display
consistent trends in their component facies and their three-
dimensional arrangement. Theses groups are called
parasequence sets or stacking patterns. They are may be
either progradational, aggradational, or retrogradational
(Van Wagoner et al. 1990).
Progradational parasequence sets are composed of a series
of parasequences in which each parasequence is positioned
more basinward than the one below. As a result, a vertical
section through a progradational parasequence set at any
location within the basin reveals a pattern of net shallowing
upward. This overall net shallowing results from the amount
of shallowing within each parasequence exceeding the amount
of deepening at each flooding surface. Because the amount of
deepening at each flooding surface is relatively small,
flooding surfaces within progradational parasequence sets can
be obscure, particularly in sets that are strongly
progradational. Progradational stacking is produced whenever
the long-term rated of sedimentation exceeds the long-term
rate of accommodation.
Aggradational parasequence sets are composed of a set of
parasequences in which each parasequence is situated directly
on top of the one below it. Because each parasequence is a
copy of the one below it, a vertical section at any point in
the basin indicates no long-term trend in water depth. Such a
lack of a long-term trend is produced by flooding surfaces
that on average, reflect the amount of deepening equal to the
amount of shallowing within each parasequence. Aggradational
stacking occurs when the long-term rate of sedimentation
balances the long-term rate of accommodation. Such a balance
is difficult to maintain for long, so aggradational stacking
tends to be less common than progradational or
retrogradational stacking.
Retrogradational parasequence sets contain a series of
parasequences in which each parasequence is shifted landward
relative to the one below it. In a vertical section, a
retrogradational parasequence set therefore records net
deepening upward, despite the shallowing-upward pattern
within each parasequence. This net upward deepening requires
that the amount of deepening at each flooding surface exceeds
the amount of shallowing within each parasequence. As a
result, flooding surfaces within retrogradational sets tend
to be more prominent than in the other parasequence sets.
Retrogradational stacking occurs when the long-term rate of
accommodation exceeds the long-term rate of sedimentation.