GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Contacts and Surfaces

• What is the difference between a contact, a
boundary and a surface?
• Are all geological surfaces time lines or
even chronostratigraphically significant?

Contacts and Surfaces

• Lithostratigraphy
– Point, surface or zone across which there is a lithologic
boundary useful for mapping.
– Note, formations are not supposed to contain
unconformities.
– Contacts can be highly diachronous.

• Sequence stratigraphy
– “chronostratigraphically significant” contacts or surfaces
useful in correlation and mapping.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Lithostratigraphy
Vertical Contacts
• Smooth versus
stepped vertical
transitions.
• Where do you
pick the
formation
contact?

Stratigraphy or Flags?
• Representations of lateral
transitions.
• No outcrop or seismic line even
vaguely resembles these
geometries!
• This is what the latest textbooks
teach to undergraduates.
• We have to do better than this!

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Lithostratigraphy

Contacts
• Strata show a variety of vertical and lateral contacts.
• Contacts can be gradational.

Delta front clinoforms in Turonian Ferron sandstone, Utah

Paleozoic Formations in the Grand Canyon

Redwall
Limestone Kaibab

Mississippian Toroweap
Coconino

Muav Cambrian
Supai

tone
Redwall Limes
Bright Angel Shale
Muav
Bright Angel Shale

Tapeats sst.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Grand Canyon Stratigraphy

6 - Hermit, Coconino, Toroweap, and Kaibab
6d - Kaibab Limestone
6c - Toroweap Formation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Grand_Canyon_area

6b - Coconino Sandstone
6a - Hermit Shale
5 - Supai Group
5d - Esplanade Formation
5c - Wescogame Formation
5b - Manakacha Formation
5a - Watahomigi Formation
4 - Temple Butte, Redwall, and Surprise Canyon
4c - Surprise Canyon Formation
4b - Redwall Limestone
4a - Temple Butte Limestone
3 - Tonto Group (Cambrian)
3c - Muav Limestone
3b - Bright Angel Shale
3a - Tapeats Sandstone
2 - Grand Canyon Supergroup
1 - Vishnu Group
1b - Zoroaster Granite
1a - Vishnu Schist

Precambrian Sedimentary Rocks in the Grand

Canyon

Flat-lying Paleozoic
sandstones, shales
and limestones

Angular unconformity
Dipping
Precamb
Grand C rian
anyon G
shales an roup
d sands
tones

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Precambrian Sedimentary Rocks in the Grand

Canyon

Flat-lying Paleozoic
sandstones, shales
and limestones

Tapeats Sandstone
Angula
r unco
nformit
y

Dippin
g
Grand Precambria
Canyo n
shales n
and sa Group
ndsto
nes

Grand Canyon
Map

• Note increase in complexity of

rocks below Tapeats sandstone.
• Formations represent mappable
units.

Tapeats

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Contacts Lithostratigraphy

•• Contacts
Contacts can
can be
be sharp.
sharp.
•• Sharp
Sharp contact
contact marks
marks the
the
base
base of
of eolian
eolian Coconino
Coconino
sandstone,
sandstone, Grand
Grand Canyon.
Canyon.

Coconino sst.

Stratigraphy Unconformity with Tertiary rocks overlying

Cretaceous Indianola sandstones and
conglomerates, Salina Utah

• In the extreme case, there may be an angular

unconformity!
rtical

ity
Unconform
Beds are ve

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Lithostratigraphy
Types of Unconformities

Sloss Sequences

Angular Unconformities

Sloss, 1963

• Six major sequences in North American Stratigraphy, represent

major tectono-eustatic events.
– Sauk, Tippecanoe, Kaskaskia, Absaroka, Zuni, Tejas.
• Unconformities are primarily angular and very widespread over the
entire North American Craton.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Lithostratigraphy

Contacts and Surfaces

• Conformity
– bedding surface with no stratigraphic break.

• Hiatus
– a break in the geologic record (the hiatus refers to the break in time).

• Unconformity
- a surface of erosion or non-deposition that separates older from younger rocks
and that indicates a significant hiatus.
- Angular Unconformity
- Disconformity
- Paraconformity
- Nonconformity

• Diastem
– Local erosion surface (e.g. base of fluvial channel, local scour).

Definitions of Unconformity
• Unconformity: Webster’s Dictionary, 1990.
– Lack of continuity in deposition between rock strata in contact corresponding to a period of
nondeposition, weathering, or erosion.

• Unconformity: Bates and Jackson, 1987.

– A substantial break or gap in the geologic record where a rock unit is overlain by another
that is not next in stratigraphic succession… It results from a change that caused
deposition to cease for a considerable span of time, and it normally implies uplift and
erosion with loss of the previously formed record. An unconformity is of longer duration
than diastem.

• Unconformity: Mitchum, 1977.

– A surface of erosion or non deposition that separates younger strata from older rocks and
represents a significant hiatus (at least a correlatable part pf a geochronologic unit is not
represented by strata).

• Unconformity: Mitchum et al., 1977.

– Observable discordances in a given stratigraphic section that show evidence of erosion or
nondeposition with obvious stratal terminations, but in places may be traced into less
obvious paraconformities recognized by biostratigraphy or other methods.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Sequence Stratigraphy

Contacts and Surfaces

• Sequence boundary
– An unconformity and its correlative conformity.

• Unconformity: Van Wagoner, 1995, Sequence Stratigraphy definition

– A surface separating younger from older strata along which there is
evidence of subaerial-erosional truncation and, in some areas, correlative
submarine erosion, a basinward shift of facies, onlap, truncation, or
abnormal subaerial exposure, with a significant hiatus indicated.
– Local, contemporaneous erosion and deposition associated with geological
processes such as point-bar development or aeolian-dune migration (i.e.
diastems) are excluded from the definition of unconformity (Mitchum et al.,
1977; Van Wagoner et al., 1990).

Sequence Stratigraphy

Contacts and Surfaces

• Flooding surface
– A surface separating younger from older strata across which there is
evidence of an abrupt increase in water depth. This deepening is commonly
accompanied by minor submarine erosion or non-deposition, but not by
subaerial erosion due to stream rejuvenation or a basinward shift in facies,
including abnormal subaerial exposure, with a minor hiatus indicated. The
amount of submarine erosion associated with a flooding surface varies, but
probably ranges from a few inches to tens of feet, with several feet being
most common. The flooding surface has a correlative surface in the coastal
plain and a correlative surface on the shelf (Van Wagoner et al., 1987,
1988, 1990).

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Key Surfaces

Key Surfaces
• At the outcrop or core scale of observation, seismic stratigraphic
"discontinuity surfaces" may in fact represent a summation of a
number of surfaces due to poor resolution of the seismic tool.
• Recognized by facies breaks and anomalous juxtaposition of
facies.
• Includes:
– Sequence Boundaries
– Transgressive Surfaces
– Maximum Flooding Surfaces.

Key Surfaces

Sequence Boundaries
• Type 1 versus Type 2
• Angular (tectonic)
• Disconformities
• Paraconformities
• Includes correlative conformity
• Synonyms:
– lowstand surface of erosion
– regressive surface of erosion (debatable).

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Key Surfaces

Attributes of Sequence Boundaries

• Interpreted to be formed because of a relative sea level fall.
• Accompanied by an abrupt seaward shift in facies and basinward shift in onlap.
• May be associated with the formation of incised valleys.
• Interfluves are associated with areas of widespread subaerial exposure.
– paleosols
– Karst

Sequence Boundaries
and Knickpoints
• Exposure of steeper profile causes
incision at knickpoints.
• Landward of knickpoints, relative sea
level change may have no effect on
stratigraphic architecture.
• New valleys may “capture” river.
• Abandoned valleys may have NO sandy
reservoir facies.
• Areas between rivers (interfluves) may
show evidence for subaerial exposure.
– Paleosols
– Mudcracks
– Caliche
– roots

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Red Deer
River
Valley,
Alberta
• Both river and
floodplain are
convined within
valley.
• Note side drainages

Boyd et al., 2006

Seismic Expression of Incised Valleys

Southeast Asia

Kalimantan (Brown, 1997)

Offshore Thailand
Posamentier and Allen, 1999

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Sequence Boundaries

Change in SB along depositional strike

Paleocurrents
A P.1 on
Neils
1 km

Large Scale Valley: Ferron Sst., Utah

h
as
W

P.2

10m
10m Fre A’
r

mo
ve

nt
Ri

A’

Freemont River Canyon, Utah

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Valley close-up
Laterally
Channel accreting
bar

Valley

SB

shoreface
5m

Photomosaic 2

3M

• Mud-chip lag and

extraformational pebbles
mark valley base.

Paleocurrents
A P.1 on
Neils
1 km
h
as
W

P.2

Fre A’
r

mo
ve

nt
Ri

A’

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Nielsen Wash Valley

on
Paleocurrent
s
A P.1 Neils
1 km

h
as
W
P.2

Multi-storey, multi-lateral fill.

Fre A’

r
ve
mo

Ri
nt
A’

Exhumed Ferron Paleo-

Paleocurrents
A P.1 on
Neils
1 km
h
as
W

P.2

Valley at Nielsen Wash

Fre A’
r

mo
ve

nt
Ri

A’

Floodplain
Point bar mudstones
Valley Floor

Shoreface

Laterally migrating bar overlies floodplain mudstone,

contained within larger erosional feature (valley).

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Strike Cross Section of Incised

on
Paleocurrents
AP.1 Neils
1 km

h
as
W
P.2

Valley
Fre A’

r
ve
mo

Ri
nt
A’
A
A’

10m

Weiguo Li, 2006

• Incised valley is indicated by truncation, onlap and rooted inter-fluve.

• Valley incises into storm-dominated marine parasequences.
• Valley has been traced for over 4 km along strike.

Small Ferron Valleys

• Multistorey incision and fill, south side of I70.

• These incisions have been interpreted as distributary channels.
• Detailed analysis suggest that they are small, incised valleys.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Ferron Valleys

• Depth of valley = 30m

• Maximum depth of channel = 9m
• Channel width = 30m to 250 m

Seismic Examples of Incised Valleys

GOM, Suter and Berryhill, 1985

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Well log cross section through a

valley-fill

Van Wagoner et al., 1990

Abrupt lateral facies changes interpreted

as valleys

Van Wagoner et al., 1990

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Viking Sandstone, Alberta

• Coarse valley facies erode into marine mudstones.

• Truncation of log markers.
• Top of valley is eroded by marine processes.

Posamentier and Allen, 1999

Fall River Sandstone, Wyoming

• Channel much thicker than associated upward coarsening delta deposits.

• Channel does not interfinger with adjacent marine facies.
• Channel is not contained within the delta front.
• Scale of channel is way too large (100 feet deep river?).

Willis, 1997

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Texas Gulf Coast

Brazos and
Colorado
River Alluvial
Plain

QUATENARY ALLUVIAL PLAIN, COLORADO RIVER, TEXAS

active channelbelt
Pleistocene
highstand
alluvial plains

onlap of Holocene
successive alluvial
100 kyr plain
alluvial plains

10 m
0 channel belt
0 10 km Basal Valley Fill Unconformities
alluvial plain paleosol
Blum and Tornqvist,
Tornqvist, 2000

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

GLACIO-EUSTASY: 125 KA TO PRESENT

0
-15 m

-50
-85 m
-100

-150
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
YEARS BEFORE PRESENT (x 1000)

modified from Revelle (1990)

Note, valleys cut and fill over the last 120 Ka but sea-level has
only just risen to the point where old valley can flood pre-120
Ka level

Composite Incised Valleys

History of Colorado River valley fills, Blum, 1995

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Sequence Boundaries

Change in SB along depositional dip

Correlative
Disconformity conformity

Van Wagoner et al., 1990

Key Surfaces

Preservation and Seaward

Expression of Sequence Boundaries
• Preservation potential depends on the depth of fluvial incision and amount of
subsequent marine erosion during subsequent transgression (ravinement).
• In the marine realm the sequence boundary may be expressed as an erosional
surface at the base of an incised shoreface.
• Farther seaward, marine erosion may occur in response to impingement by
waves on the previously quiescent sea.
– May see abrupt change in oxygenation on the substrate or change from laminated
mudstones to bedded or bioturbated.
• Eventually, the sequence boundary passes into a correlative conformity.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Key Surfaces

Transgressive Surfaces
• Related to times of sea level rise.
• Transgression-related surfaces tend to be diachronous.
• May be considered geologically “instantaneous” at a regional to sub-
regional scale, and particularly at the seismic scale.
• Transgression-related surfaces may be easier to identify in core, outcrops,
and well-log data
• Can serve as useful correlation markers and as bounding discontinuities
for allostratigraphic units.
• May merge landward with the sequence-bounding unconformity or
seaward with the correlative conformity.
• Includes:
– Flooding Surfaces (FS)
– Transgressive Surface of Erosion (TSE)
– TSE also called Ravinement.

Flooding Surfaces
Razor sharp contact
between shallow water
sandstone and deeper
water marine mudstones
records deepening.

Bioturbation shows marine

working of previously
exposed surface.

Roots record subaerial

exposure.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Flooding Surfaces

Razor sharp contact between shallow water

sandstone and deeper water marine 3
mudstones records deepening.

Facies 3 - burrowed marine mudstones.

Bioturbation shows marine working of

previously exposed surface. 2
Facies 2 - bioturbated sandy mudstone

Roots and paleosol record subaerial

exposure.
1
Facies 1 - paleosol

Top Mannville Fm., (slide courtesy of James MacEachern)

Transgressive Surfaces
• Flooding implies inundation of previously dry (or subaerial)
environment.
– Correlative surfaces can be “deepening” surfaces, in which there is
evidence of abrupt deepening across a surface that was always
underwater.
• Flooding is commonly taken as a relatively passive process in
which there is little to no erosion (a few meters or less).
• Where significant erosion can be demonstrated, the term
“Transgressive Surface of Erosion” (TSE) is used.
• These are also referred to as Ravinement Surfaces.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Modern
Ravinement
Surface
• A diachronous
surface
• May erode up to 40m
(Leckie, 1994).
• GOM ravinement
averages 9m.
• Ravinement Surface
may “replace”
sequence boundary.

Ravinement is produced by shoreface retreat

• SHOREFACE:
– Steeply dipping slope that separates the subaerial from the
subaqueous plane.
– Forms in response to shoaling waves (fairweather processes).
• Fairweather wave-base typically taken to be between 5-15 meters.
– Mud typically unable to be deposited.
– Shorefaces can be erosional (wave-cut terrace) or depositional.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

The Shoreface
• Forms in response to shoaling waves which tend to transport sand landward.
– This is sometimes called the littoral fence.

• The shoreface usually marks the area where day-to-day transport of sand
occurs (so-called fair-weather wave base).

Note asymmetry in shoaling waves

Ravinement
Nummedal and Swift, 1987

• Landward migration of the shoreface produces an erosional “Ravinement”

surface.
• Time lines cross this surface.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Formation of a Ravinement Surface

Ravinement surface in
Gironde Estuary has
lots of space between
cobbles for animals to
burrow.

After Posamentier and Allen, 1999

“Uh-oh, more terminology!”

What is Glossifungites?
• Certain trace fossils are defined on the
basis of the substrate type
– Soupgrounds
– Softgrounds
– Firmgrounds (Glossifungites)
– Hardgrounds (Trypanites)
– Woodgrounds (Teredolites)
• These are as subset of the broader
ichnofacies concept.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Ichnofacies
Different trace fossil
assemblages characterize
different environments.

Pemberton et al., 1992 after Frey and Pemberton, 1985 and Seilacher, 1967

Substrate Dependent Ichnofacies

• Ichnofacies may be
substrate specific
– Soupground (no structures
visible),
– Softground (structures
visible),

Softground, Cruziana
to Zoophycos
transition; Cretaceous
Dunvegan Fm.,
Alberta

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Glossifungites
• Firmground.
• May indicate partial erosion and exhumation of a
firm substrate.
• Commonly associated with ravinement surfaces.

Sharp-walled, passively-infilled burrows from Panther

Tongue Utah (above) and Kuparuk sandstone, Alaska (right)

Glossifungites Ichnofacies

Sharp-walled, passively-infilled
Thallasinoides network, Dunvegan Sharp-walled, passively-infilled Pelecypod
Fm., Alberta, Canada burrow, Wall Creek sandstone, Wyoming.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Trypanites Ichnofacies
• Hardgrounds e.g. Trypanites, made by boring animals.
• Bored pebbles indicate a marine setting.
• Borings extremely common inmost carbonates

Pholad borings, infilled

with transgressive
conglomerate,
Washington Coast

Teredolites Ichnofacies
• Woodgrounds e.g. Teredolites, made by boring animals.

Fossilized Teredolites borings,

in Coastal Plain coals of the
Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone,
Teredolites borings, in log along Brazos Utah
Delta coast

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Teredolites
Bored fossil wood in marine-
influenced channels in point bars of Teredolites
the Ferron Sandstone, UT.

Teredolites in fossil branch

Back to Trangressive surfaces

Razor sharp contact between shoreface sandstone and overlying

marine mudstone. Posey Allomember, Belle Fourche Member,
Frontier Formation, Wyoming, Cretaceous.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Posey Sandstone - Frontier Fm.

Marine Discontinuity
no preserved fluvial facies above
Marine Mudstones

Shoreface and delta front sandstones

Lag material at Vertebral element from

Marine Plesiosaur Tail. Pebbles
top of Posey
Sandstone

Marine Ophiomorpha
fragment in coarse
sandstone

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Cretaceous Panther Tongue

Delta, Utah

20m

Facies - Transgressive Lag

Delta is top-
truncated, no
preserved paralic
topset facies.
Transgressive
Lag

Glossifungites

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

2nd Frontier Sandstone, WY

50m

Gradationally-
based, top-
truncated,
upward
coarsening
facies
succession,
interpreted as a
shoreface.

2nd Frontier Sandstone, WY

• Cross-bedded pebbly sandstones overlie erosion surface.
• Pebbles concentrated from scattered pebbles in underlying facies.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

A gallery of branching
Thallasinoides
burrows forms a
Glossifungites
Ichnofacies.

Burrows were
filled with
pebbles and
sand following
trangression
of shoreface.

Flooding surfaces
TSE and FS
Flooding surface (FS) may be
marked by abrupt unresolvable
transition from sandy to
muddy facies.
on well logs

10cm

Angular discontinuity
forms
Transgressive Surface
of Erosion (TSE)

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Transgressive Surfaces

Ravinement Surfaces
• Also called a Transgressive surface of Erosion.
• Tens of centimeters to tens of meters can be eroded.
• Erosion caused by shoreface retreat.
• May be associated with development of a firmground trace fossil
suite (Glossifungites).
• Sediments transported seaward and landward, forming
trangressive lag or relict sand body.
• Younger erosion surface can modify older sequence boundary
- termed Flooding Surface/Sequence Boundary by Exxon (FSSB).

Transgressive Surfaces

Flooding Surfaces
• Think of this as a more “passive”.
• Commonly have little erosion.
• Can include offshore areas where water depth simply increases
(deepening surface).
• May be of local extent (minor flooding surfaces).
• Hardcore Exxon literature does not distinguish ravinement from
flooding (e.g. Van Wagoner et al., 1990).
• Hierarchy of flooding surfaces includes minor and major flooding
surfaces.
• Also referred to as marine flooding surfaces.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Lowstand System Tract

• Definition
– The lowstand systems tract overlies the “sequence boundary”
(includes correlative conformity).
• Distal lowstands overlie correlative conformities.

Distal Lowstand Shoreline

Correlative Conformities
Let’s remove the proximal facies (a common
problem in foreland basins)

Can you still distinguish

distal lowstand facies
if proximal portions of
basin are missing?

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Correlative Conformities
Let’s remove the proximal facies, a common
problem in foreland basins

Good luck picking the correlative

conformity!

Transgressive Surfaces

Maxiumum Flooding Surfaces

• Surface associated with the time of peak transgression.

• Commonly associated with a condensed section.

• May be very difficult to pick.

• There may be several scales (hierarchy) of maximum flooding

surface.

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GEOL 6380 Sequence Stratigrapohy Part 8: Types of Contacts

Another Slug

Condensed Section:
Dunvegan Fm., Alberta
Condensed
sections, mfs
somewhere in
here!

Plint, 2000

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