1932

Abstract

Sadler's (1981) analysis of how measured sedimentation rate decreases with timescale of measurement quantified the vanishingly small fractional time preservation—completeness—of the stratigraphic record. Generalized numerical models have shown that the Sadler effect can be recovered, through the action of erosional clipping and time removal (the “stratigraphic filter”), from even fairly simple topographic sequences. However, several lines of evidence suggest that most of the missing time has not been eroded out but rather represents periods of inactivity or stasis. Low temporal completeness could also imply that the stratigraphic record is dominated by rare, extreme events, but paleotransport estimates suggest that this is not generally the case: The stratigraphic record is strangely ordinary. It appears that the organization of the topography into a hierarchy of forms also organizes the deposition into concentrated events that tend to preserve relatively ordinary conditions, albeit for very short intervals. Our understanding of time preservation would benefit from insight about how inactivity is recorded in strata; better ways to constrain localized, short-term rates of deposition; and a new focus on integrated time–space dynamics of deposition and preservation.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-082517-010129
2018-05-30
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/46/1/annurev-earth-082517-010129.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-082517-010129&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Ager DV 1993.a The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
  2. Ager DV 1993.b The New Catastrophism: The Importance of the Rare Event in Geological History Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  3. Allen J 1970. A quantitative model of climbing ripples and their cross-laminated deposits. Sedimentology 14:5–26
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Anders MH, Krueger SW, Sadler PM 1987. A new look at sedimentation rates and the completeness of the stratigraphic record. J. Geol. 95:1–14
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Armstrong C, Mohrig D, Hess T, George T, Straub KM 2014. Influence of growth faults on coastal fluvial systems: examples from the late Miocene to Recent Mississippi River Delta. Sediment. Geol. 301:120–32
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Ashley GM 1990. Classification of large-scale subaqueous bedforms: a new look at an old problem. J. Sediment. Petrol. 60:160–72
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Baker VR 2009. High-energy megafloods: planetary settings and sedimentary dynamics. Flood and Megaflood Processes and Deposits: Recent Ancient Examples IP Martini, VR Baker, G Garzón 3–15 Oxford, UK: Blackwell
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Barrell J 1917. Rhythms and the measurements of geologic time. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 28:745–904
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Berggren WA, Van Couvering JA 2014. Catastrophes and Earth History: The New Uniformitarianism Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  10. Bhattacharya JP, Posamentier HW 1994. Sequence stratigraphy and allostratigraphic applications in the Alberta foreland basin. Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin GD Mossop, I Shetsen 407–12 Calgary: Can. Soc. Pet. Geol
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Blum M, Martin J, Milliken K, Garvin M 2013. Paleovalley systems: insights from Quaternary analogs and experiments. Earth Sci. Rev. 116:128–69
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Boguchwal LA, Southard JB 1990. Bed configurations in steady unidirectional water flows. Part 1. Scale model study using fine sands. J. Sediment. Petrol. 60:649–57
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Bouchaud J-P, Georges A 1990. Anomalous diffusion in disordered media: statistical mechanisms, models and physical applications. Phys. Rep. 195:127–293
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Bretz JH 1969. The Lake Missoula floods and the channeled scabland. J. Geol. 77:505–43
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Catuneanu O 2006. Principles of Sequence Stratigraphy Amsterdam: Elsevier
  16. Catuneanu O, Abreu V, Bhattacharya J, Blum M, Dalrymple R et al. 2009. Towards the standardization of sequence stratigraphy. Earth Sci. Rev. 92:1–33
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Cowan CA, Fox DL, Runkel AC, Saltzman MR 2005. Terrestrial-marine carbon cycle coupling in ∼500-my-old phosphatic brachiopods. Geology 33:661–64
    [Google Scholar]
  18. De Vente J, Poesen J, Arabkhedri M, Verstraeten G 2007. The sediment delivery problem revisited. Prog. Phys. Geogr. 31:155–78
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Dott RH Jr 1983. 1982 SEPM Presidential Address: episodic sedimentation—how normal is average? How rare is rare? Does it matter. J. Sediment. Res. 53:5–23
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Driese SG, Nordt LC 2015. New Frontiers in Paleopedology and Terrestrial Paleoclimatology: Paleosols and Soil Surface Analog Systems Tulsa, OK: SEPM Soc. Sediment. Geol
  21. Embry AF 2010. Correlating siliciclastic successions with sequence stratigraphy. Application of Modern Stratigraphic Techniques: Theory and Case Histories KT Ratcliffe, BA Zaitlin 35–53 Tulsa, OK: SEPM Soc. Sediment. Geol
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Emery D, Myers K 2009. Sequence Stratigraphy Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
  23. Fernandes AM, Törnqvist TE, Straub KM, Mohrig D 2016. Connecting the backwater hydraulics of coastal rivers to fluvio-deltaic sedimentology and stratigraphy. Geology 44:979–82
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Ferrier KL, Kirchner JW, Finkel RC 2005. Erosion rates over millennial and decadal timescales at Caspar Creek and Redwood Creek, Northern California Coast Ranges. Earth Surf. Process. Landforms 30:1025–38
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Foreman BZ, Straub KM 2017. Autogenic geomorphic processes determine resolution and fidelity of terrestrial paleoclimate records. Sci. Adv. 3:e1700683
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Ganti V, Paola C, Foufoula-Georgiou E 2013. Kinematic controls on the geometry of the preserved cross sets. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 118:1296–307
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Ganti V, Straub KM, Foufoula-Georgiou E, Paola C 2011. Space-time dynamics of depositional systems: experimental evidence and theoretical modeling of heavy-tailed statistics. J. Geophys. Res. 116:F02011
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Genise JF 2017. Ichnoentomology: Insect Traces in Soils and Paleosols Berlin: Springer
  29. Goodwin PW, Anderson E 1985. Punctuated aggradational cycles: a general hypothesis of episodic stratigraphic accumulation. J. Geol. 93:515–33
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Gould SJ 1965. Is uniformitarianism necessary. ? Am. J. Sci. 263:223–28
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Gupta S, Collier JS, Palmer-Felgate A, Potter G 2007. Catastrophic flooding origin of shelf valley systems in the English Channel. Nature 448:342–45
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Hajek EA, Straub KM 2017. Autogenic sedimentation in clastic stratigraphy. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 45:681–709
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Holland SM 1995. The stratigraphic distribution of fossils. Paleobiology 21:92–109
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Holland SM, Patzkowsky ME 2002. Stratigraphic variation in the timing of first and last occurrences. Palaios 17:134–46
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Hooke RL 1994. On the efficiency of humans as geomorphic agents. GSA Today Sept 217:224–25
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Hundey EJ, Ashmore PE 2009. Length scale of braided river morphology. Water Resour. Res. 45:W08409
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Jerolmack DJ, Mohrig D 2005. Frozen dynamics of migrating bedforms. Geology 33:57–60
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Jerolmack DJ, Sadler P 2007. Transience and persistence in the depositional record of continental margins. J. Geophys. Res. 112:F03S13
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Kim W, Petter AL, Straub K, Mohrig D 2014. Investigating the autogenic process response to allogenic forcing: experimental geomorphology and stratigraphy. From Depositional Systems to Sedimentary Successions on the Norwegian Continental Margin AW Martinius, R Ravnas, JA Howell, RJ Steel, JP Wonham 127–38 Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Kirchner JW, Finkel RC, Riebe CS, Granger DE, Clayton JL et al. 2001. Mountain erosion over 10 yr, 10 ky, and 10 my time scales. Geology 29:591–94
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Kleinhans MG, van Dijk WM, van de Lageweg WI, Hoendervoogt R, Markies H, Schuurman F 2010. From nature to lab: scaling self-formed meandering and braided rivers Presented at River Flow Int. Conf. Fluv. Hydraul., Sept 8–10 Braunschweig: Ger
  42. Kolmogorov AN 1951. Solution of a Problem in Probability Theory Connected with the Problem of the Mechanism of Stratification Providence, RI: Am. Math. Soc
  43. Kraus MJ 1999. Paleosols in clastic sedimentary rocks: their geologic applications. Earth Sci. Rev. 47:41–70
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Leclair SF 2002. Preservation of cross-strata due to the migration of subaqueous dunes: an experimental investigation. Sedimentology 49:1157–80
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Li Q, Yu L, Straub KM 2016. Storage thresholds for relative sea-level signals in the stratigraphic record. Geology 44:179–82
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Lu H, Moran C, Sivapalan M 2005. A theoretical exploration of catchment-scale sediment delivery. Water Resour. Res. 41:W09415
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Mahon RC, Shaw JB, Barnhart KR, Hobley DEJ, McElroy B 2015. Quantifying the stratigraphic completeness of delta shoreline trajectories. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 120:799–817
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Malverti L, Lajeunesse E, Metivier F 2008. Small is beautiful: upscaling microscale experimental results to the size of natural rivers. J. Geophys. Res. 113:F04004
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Matmon A, Simhai O, Amit R, Haviv I, Porat N et al. 2009. Desert pavement–coated surfaces in extreme deserts present the longest-lived landforms on Earth. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 121:688–97
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Miall AD 1985. Architectural element analysis: a new method of facies analysis applied to fluvial deposits. Earth Sci. Rev. 22:261–308
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Miall AD 1991. Stratigraphic sequences and their chronostratigraphic correlation. J. Sediment. Res. 61:497–505
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Miall AD 1993. The architecture of fluvial-deltaic sequences in the Upper Mesaverde Group (Upper Cretaceous), Book Cliffs, Utah. Braided Rivers JL Best, CS Bristow 305–32 London: Geol. Soc. London
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Miall AD 1994. Reconstructing fluvial macroform architecture from two-dimensional outcrops: examples from the Castlegate Sandstone, Book Cliffs, Utah. J. Sediment. Res. 64:146–58
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Miall AD 2015. Updating uniformitarianism: stratigraphy as just a set of ‘frozen accidents’. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 404:11–36
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Miall AD, Tyler N 1991. The Three-Dimensional Facies Architecture of Terrigenous Clastic Sediments and Its Implications for Hydrocarbon Discovery and Recovery Concepts Sedimentol. Paleontol 3 Tulsa, OK: Soc. Sediment. Geol
  56. Montgomery DR, Hallet B, Yuping L, Finnegan N, Anders A et al. 2004. Evidence for Holocene megafloods down the Tsangpo River gorge, southeastern Tibet. Quat. Res. 62:201–7
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Neal J, Abreu V 2009. Sequence stratigraphy hierarchy and the accommodation succession method. Geology 37:779–82
    [Google Scholar]
  58. O'Connor JE, Costa JE 2004. The world's largest floods, past and present: their causes and magnitudes Circ. 1254, US Dept. Inter./US Geol Surv., Washington: DC/Reston, VA
  59. Paola C 2016. A mind of their own: recent advances in autogenic dynamics in rivers and deltas. Autogenic Dynamics and Self-Organization in Sedimentary Systems DA Budd, EA Hajek, SJ Purkis Tulsa, OK: SEPM Soc. Sediment. Geol https://doi.org/10.2110/sepmsp.106.04
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  60. Paola C, Borgman L 1991. Reconstructing random topography from preserved stratification. Sedimentology 38:553–65
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Paola C, Straub K, Mohrig DC, Reinhardt L 2009. The “unreasonable effectiveness” of stratigraphic and geomorphic experiments.. Earth Sci. Rev. 97:1–43
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Parsons AJ, Wainwright J, Brazier RE, Powell DM 2006. Is sediment delivery a fallacy. Earth Surf. Process. Landforms 31:1325–28
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Pelletier JD 2007. Cantor set model of eolian dust deposits on desert alluvial fan terraces. Geology 35:439–42
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Pelletier JD 2012. A spatially distributed model for the long-term suspended sediment discharge and delivery ratio of drainage basins. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 117:F02028
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Pelletier JD, Turcotte DL 1997. Synthetic stratigraphy with a stochastic diffusion model of sedimentation. J. Sediment. Res. 67:1060–67
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Plotnick R 1986. A fractal model for the distribution of stratigraphic hiatuses. J. Geol. 94:885–90
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Posamentier HW 2004. Seismic geomorphology: imaging elements of depositional systems from shelf to deep basin using 3D seismic data: implications for exploration and development. Geol. Soc. Lond. Mem. 29:11–24
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Postma G 2014. Generic autogenic behaviour in fluvial systems: lessons from experimental studies. From Depositional Systems to Sedimentary Successions on the Norwegian Continental Margin AW Martinius, R Ravnås, JA Howell, RJ Steel, JP Wonham 1–18 Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Prather BE, Deptuck ME, Mohrig D, Van Hoorn B, Wynn RB 2012. Application of the Principles of Seismic Geomorphology to Continental Slope and Base-of-Slope Systems: Case Studies from Seafloor and Near-Seafloor Analogues Tulsa, OK: SEPM Soc. Sediment. Geol
  70. Reesink A, Van den Berg J, Parsons D, Amsler M, Best J et al. 2015. Extremes in dune preservation: controls on the completeness of fluvial deposits. Earth Sci. Rev. 150:652–65
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Retallack GJ 2008. Soils of the Past: An Introduction to Paleopedology Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
  72. Rubin DM, Hunter RE 1982. Bedform climbing in theory and nature. Sedimentology 29:121–38
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Runkel AC, Miller JF, McKay RM, Palmer AR, Taylor JF 2007. High-resolution sequence stratigraphy of lower Paleozoic sheet sandstones in central North America: the role of special conditions of cratonic interiors in development of stratal architecture. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 119:860–81
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Runkel AC, Miller JF, McKay RM, Palmer AR, Taylor JF 2008. The record of time in cratonic interior strata: Does exceptionally slow subsidence necessarily result in exceptionally poor stratigraphic completeness?. Geol. Assocs. Can. Spec. Pap. 48:341–62
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Sadler PM 1981. Sediment accumulation rates and the completeness of stratigraphic sections. J. Geol. 89:569–84
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Sadler PM 1999. The influence of hiatuses on sediment accumulation rates. GeoRes. Forum 5:15–40
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Sadler PM, Jerolmack DJ 2015. Scaling laws for aggradation, denudation and progradation rates: the case for time-scale invariance at sediment sources and sinks. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 404:69–88
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Sadler PM, Strauss DJ 1990. Estimation of completeness of stratigraphical sections using empirical data and theoretical models. J. Geol. Soc. 147:471–85
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Saltzman MR, Cowan CA, Runkel AC, Runnegar B, Stewart MC, Palmer AR 2004. The Late Cambrian SPICE (δ13C) event and the Sauk II-Sauk III regression: new evidence from Laurentian basins in Utah, Iowa, and Newfoundland. J. Sediment. Res. 74:366–77
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Samorodnitsky G, Taqqu MS 1994. Stable Non-Gaussian Random Processes: Stochastic Models with Infinite Variance Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press
  81. Schumer R, Jerolmack D, McElroy B 2011. The stratigraphic filter and bias in measurement of geologic rates. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38:L11405
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Schumer R, Jerolmack DJ 2009. Real and apparent changes in sediment deposition rates through time. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 114:F00A06
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Schumer R, Taloni A, Furbish DJ 2017. Theory connecting nonlocal sediment transport, earth surface roughness, and the Sadler effect. Geophys. Res. Lett. 44:2281–89
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Sheets BA, Hickson TA, Paola C 2002. Assembling the stratigraphic record: depositional patterns and time-scales in an experimental alluvial basin. Basin Res 14:287–301
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Sloss L 1963. Sequences in the cratonic interior of North America. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 74:93–114
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Sloss L 1988. Tectonic evolution of the craton in Phanerozoic time. Geol. North Am. 2:25–51
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Sloss LL 1996. Sequence stratigraphy on the craton: caveat emptor. Paleozoic Sequence Stratigraphy: Views from the North American Craton BJ Witzke, GA Ludvigson, J Day 425–34 Boulder, CO: Geol. Soc. Am
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Smith DG, Bailey RJ, Burgess PM, Fraser AJ 2015. Strata and time: probing the gaps in our understanding. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 404:1–10
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Southard JB, Boguchwal LA 1990. Bed configurations in steady unidirectional water flows. Part 3. Effects of temperature and gravity. J. Sediment. Petrol. 60:680–86
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Stam AJ 1977. The reversed ladder of a random walk. J. Appl. Probab. 14:190–94
    [Google Scholar]
  91. Stock GM, Frankel KL, Ehlers TA, Schaller M, Briggs SM, Finkel RC 2009. Spatial and temporal variations in denudation of the Wasatch Mountains, Utah, USA. Lithosphere 1:34–40
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Straub KM, Esposito CR 2013. Influence of water and sediment supply on the stratigraphic record of alluvial fans and deltas: process controls on stratigraphic completeness. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 118:625–37
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Straub KM, Li Q, Benson WM 2015. Influence of sediment cohesion on deltaic shoreline dynamics and bulk sediment retention: a laboratory study. Geophys. Res. Lett. 42:9808–15
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Straub KM, Paola C, Mohrig D, Wolinsky MA, George T 2009. Compensational stacking of channelized sedimentary deposits. J. Sediment. Res. 79:673–88
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Strauss D, Sadler PM 1989. Stochastic models for the completeness of stratigraphic sections. Math. Geol. 21:37–59
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Tape CH, Cowan CA, Runkel AC 2003. Tidal-bundle sequences in the Jordan Sandstone (Upper Cambrian), southeastern Minnesota, USA: evidence for tides along inboard shorelines of the Sauk epicontinental sea. J. Sediment. Res. 73:354–66
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Tipper JC 2015. The importance of doing nothing: stasis in sedimentation systems and its stratigraphic effects. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 404:105–22
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Törnqvist TE 1994. Middle and Late Holocene avulsion history of the River Rhine (Rhine-Meuse Delta, The Netherlands). Geology 22:711–14
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Trampush SM, Hajek EA 2017. Preserving proxy records in dynamic landscapes: modeling and examples from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Geology 45:967–70
    [Google Scholar]
  100. Van Wagoner JC, Mitchum RM, Campion KM, Rahmanian VD 1990. Siliciclastic Sequence Stratigraphy in Well Logs, Cores, and Outcrops: Concepts for High-Resolution Correlation of Time and Facies Tulsa, OK: AAPG
  101. Wheeler HE 1958. Time-stratigraphy. AAPG Bull 42:1047–63
    [Google Scholar]
  102. Wheeler HE 1959. Stratigraphic units in space and time. Am. J. Sci. 257:692–706
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Wheeler HE 1964. Baselevel, lithosphere surface, and time-stratigraphy. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 75:599–610
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Widdowson M 1997. The geomorphological and geological importance of palaeosurfaces. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 120:1–12
    [Google Scholar]
  105. Wilkerson GV, Parker G 2011. Physical basis for quasi-universal relations describing bankfull hydraulic geometry of sand-bed rivers. J. Hydraul. Eng. 137:739–53
    [Google Scholar]
  106. Wilkinson BH 2005. Humans as geologic agents: a deep-time perspective. Geology 33:161–64
    [Google Scholar]
  107. Wilkinson BH, McElroy BJ 2007. The impact of humans on continental erosion and sedimentation. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 119:140–56
    [Google Scholar]
  108. Willenbring JK, Jerolmack DJ 2016. The null hypothesis: globally steady rates of erosion, weathering fluxes and shelf sediment accumulation during Late Cenozoic mountain uplift and glaciation. Terra Nova 28:11–18
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-082517-010129
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-082517-010129
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error