Sediment supply as a control on the variability of sequences: an example from the late Namurian of northern England

Abstract

Currently, variations in accommodation space are seen as the major control on facies stacking patterns and stratal geometries. This paper emphasizes the importance of the sediment supply variable through the use of a regional, stratal surface-based interpretation of the late Namurian stratigraphy of northern England. Late highstand palaeogeographies and stacking pattern variations highlight spatial and temporal variations in sediment supply, which promote the contemporaneous development of prograda-tional, aggradational and retrogradational stacking patterns. This questions the derivation of relative sea-level curves from specific stacking patterns and highlights the potential for miscorrelation in areas with major sediment supply variations.

Sequence stratigraphy based on high-resolution seismic profiles in the late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of the Venice area

“…The lateral variability of sequences has been recently documented in various depositional settings as well by numerical modelling (e.g. Trincardi and Field, 1991;Gawthorpe et al, 1994Gawthorpe et al, , 2003Church and Gawthorpe, 1997;McMurray and Gawthorpe, 2000;Ritchie et al, 2004). Under particular conditions, different locations of a coast may experience opposite trends, and they may be controlled by local subsidence, sediment supply and physiography; therefore different systems tracts may be coeval in the same depositional system (Gawthorpe et al, 1994;Church and Gawthorpe, 1997).…”

Placing constraints on the nature of short‐term eustatic curves

“…Although the results presented here offer a framework for assessing the plausibility of a eustatic (or relative sealevel curve), some care is needed. While we explore a range of sediment supplies in this study and find that the minimum rate at which TSTs can form remains constant (Figure 3), it has been demonstrated that time-variable sediment supply can independently create systems tracts that may appear to relate to changes in accommodation (Burgess & Prince, 2015;Church & Gawthorpe, 1997;Zhang et al, 2018). Sediment supply is controlled by a complex interplay of factors including hinterland relief, the size of the drainage basin, drainage basin climate and geology, the amount and seasonality of precipitation and vegetation cover (Syvitski & Milliman, 2007;Van der Zwan, 2002).…”

Genetic sequence stratigraphy on the basis of ichnology for the Middle Jurassic basin margin succession of Chorar Island (eastern Kachchh Basin, western India)

“…The HST-II represents a major progradation of the shoreline in the Chorar Island area during the Callovian, which does not coincide with the global sea level curve (Haq et al, 1988;Haq & Al-Qahtani, 2005). The development of a HST due to sediment supply that outpaced the accommodation space in a rift environment has been observed in the Gainsborough Trough (UK) in upper Namurian strata (Church & Gawthorpe, 1997). Hence, HST-II indicates a continuous creation of accommodation space within a synrift basin margin compensated by sediment supply outpacing the accommodation space and resulting in an aggrading thick clastic sequence ( Fig.…”