Stratigraphy and its Evolution
|| William 'Strata' Smith (23 March 1769 – 28 August 1839) was an English geologist and surveyor who generated the first geological map of England. When one thinks of how little had been published on formalized sedimentary stratigraphy and how little was known of the relationship of fossils to depositional setting and time, this was a miraculous creation of intuitive genius. By the standards of his time, William Smith had had a relatively simple education and his family connections in a vertical society prevented him from mixing easily with learned society.
Sequence stratigraphy is a recent methodology for stratigraphic interpretation, pioneered by Peter Vail in the mid 70's (Vail et al 1977), that explains the complex geometries that sediments acquire as they fill accommodation in response to changes in rates of sedimentation, tectonic and eustatic movement. This discipline is built on a solid foundation of five geological paradigms that include:
The text that follows traces the historical development of each of these five paradigms.