ERSC 3P12 Lecture 21: 21. Paleontology and sequence stratigraphy

• School: Brock University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: ERSC 3P12
• Professor: Martin Head

Document Summary

Maybe easy to tell in the field, not so easy from the subsurface. Two separate uses: paleoenvironmental reconstruction, age dating. Micropaleontology and palynology important because of small sample size available (ditch cuttings, sidewall cores, even conventional core): paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Most useful groups are micropaleontology (mineralized microfossils), palynology (organic- walled microfossils), and (in conventional core) trace fossils (ichnology, ichnofacies) and occasionally macrofossils. A wave-dominated delta succession through a parasequence cretaceous book cliffs, utah. Trace fossils used in conjunction with sedimentology to determine direction of shallowing in a wave-dominated delta succession through a (para)sequence. Palaeontology and sedimentology are used to determine depositional environments, to integrate with seismic stratigraphy and electric logs, and help sequence stratigraphic interpretations. Each of the 4 tracts and 3 surfaces has a different expression landward and basinward, from fully oceanic (pelagic) to shelf (neritic) to brackish to terrestrial. May be necessary to verify all these paleoenvironments.