Stratigraphic Concepts

Abstract

The sequence as an unconformity-bounded stratal unit was proposed by Sloss in 1948 (Sloss et al., 1949;Sloss, 1950, 1963). Sloss (1963) pointed out, "The sequence concept is not new and was already old when it was enunciated by the writer and his colleagues in1948. The concept and practice is as old as organized stratigraphy." Nonetheless, Sloss deservedly is given credit for developing the unconformity-bounded sequence as a stratigraphic tool. Sloss (1963) recognized six packages of strata bounded by interregional unconformities on the North American craton between latest Precambrian and Holocene deposits. He called these stratal packages "sequences" and gave them native American names to emphasize their North American derivation (Sloss, 1988). Sloss (1988) used these cratonic sequences as operational units for practical tasks such as facies mapping, although he felt that these sequences" have no necessary applications to the rock stratigraphy and time stratigraphy of extra cratonic or extracontinental areas" (Sloss, 1963). Although the concept of the cratonic sequence provided the foundation for sequence stratigraphy,

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