Very thick sequences, up to 25 000 ft, of Permo-Triassic sediment are preserved within the Papa and East Solan Basins, in the West Shetlands area. The active margin of this Permo-Triassic basin lay along the West Shetland Spine Fault. Due to severe erosional truncation, the position of the westerly passive margin cannot be delineated. The Triassic basin fill, referred to the Papa Group, has been proven by drilling to be at least 8000 ft thick. A combination of palynological, log and sedimentological analyses have allowed the succession to be informally subdivided into lithostratigraphic units. The oldest, of earliest Triassic age, is the Otter Bank Shale Formation deposited in a coastal/alluvial plain setting. This is gradationally succeeded by the coarse-grained Otter Bank Sandstone Formation comprising sediments derived from the interdigitation of sheetflood, braidplain and aeolian environments of deposition. These represent the initial erosional products derived from the uplifted, rifted basin margin. This major phase of Early Triassic rifting is believed to have taken place during the Scythian. The succeeding Foula Sandstone Formation marks the establishment of predominantly axial braidplain systems, deposited during a period of intermittent but waning tectonic influence during Middle to Late Triassic times. The Papa Group is referred to the New Red Sandstone Supergroup.

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has not yet been calibrated by testing chemostratigraphic correlations against physical 23 stratigraphic correlations from outcrop. Chemical data from a well-exposed siliciclastic 24 succession in a Tortonian (Late Miocene) submarine slope channel system in the Tabernas 25Basin of Southern Spain were generated using X-ray fluorescence supplemented by X-ray 26 diffraction, SEM analysis and light microscopy. Amongst the >60 elements measured nearly 27 a quarter of them have proved to be useful or reliable for geochemically-based correlation at 28 the tested scales (~10m, ~50m, ~100m). These elements are SiO 2 , K 2 O, Al 2 O 3 , CaO, and 29TiO 2 , as well as Zr, Nb, Th, Rb, Cs, As, and the Rare Earth Elements; La, Nd, and Ce. High 30 resolution, bed-to-bed geochemical correlation is feasible over short distances (~10m). 31Geochemical data from sections in beds that are traceable suggest that a given stratigraphic 32 level seems to be geochemically homogeneous with respect to some key elements. 33Geochemical data also provide a useful aid for high resolution sedimentary correlation, at 34 distances of several tens of meters up to at least 100m. Since each individual bed seems to be 35 broadly homogenous in composition, at a larger scale it is be possible to discern a provenance 36 signal within geochemical data. Chemical stratigraphy thus seems to work even in 37 stratigraphically-complicated submarine channel complexes. 38 39

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