Lecture 1: Introduction and Historical perspective

Stratigraphy

B. Natalin

• Prof. Dr. Boris A. Natalin, • Office – E 502• Phone – 285 6221, • e-mail: natalin@itu.edu.tr • Website:

http://web.itu.edu.tr/~natalin/Stratigraphy/index.html

• Assistant• E-mail:

Stratigraphy

• Definition: The branch of geology that infers temporal relationships from spatial relationships is called stratigraphy. (Şengör, Sakinç, 2001)

• First usage: William Smith (1817)

Stratigraphy

• From the Latin stratum and Greek graphia• Traditionally was considered as a descriptive

science of rock strata• Now, all classes of rocks – sedimentary,

igneous, and metamorphic – fall within the scope of stratigraphy

• Stratigraphic procedure includes:- description- classification- naming- correlation of rock unites

Textbooks• Prothero, D. R., 1990. Interpreting the

stratigraphic record: W. H. Freeman, New York, 410 p.

• Boggs, S. Jr., 2001. Principles of sedimentology and stratigraphy. Third edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 726 p.

• Salvador, A., ed., 1994, International stratigraphic guide - A Guide to stratigraphic classification, terminology, and procedure, second edition, The Geological Society of America, Boulder, 214 p.

How to use lecture schedule5 10.03 Lithostratigraphy, Lecture 3 Nomenclature and

classification of lithostratigraphic units: Time, time-rock, and rock unit, Geologic time scale, Formal lithostratigraphic units. Stratigraphic methods: Stratigraphic sections, Stratigraphic cross section and fence diagrams, Stratigraphic maps, Basin analysis.

PR-Ch. 8 (p. 201-207).

BG-Ch. 13.5 (p. 469-473, 581-589)

PR-Ch. 9 (p. 209-220).

BG-Ch. 19.5 (p. 633-645)

6 17.03 Biostratigraphy, Lecture 1: Biostratigraphic concepts (faunal succession, concept of zone), Evolution and paleoecology, Biogeographic provinces, Immigration and emigration of fossils, Biostratigraphic zonation (interval zones, assemblage zones, abundance zones).

PR-Ch. 10 (p. 229-236).

BG-Ch. 17 (p. 547-555)

Examinations

• Two examinations: one after discussion of litho- and biostratigraphy and the other one at the end of the semester.

• Quiz containing 3-5 questions. • 3 home works

Grading• Final examination – 45 points • Midterm examination – 30 points. • Quizzes – 10 points • Homeworks – 15 points• I reserve the right to rise or reduce by 10

points the final mark on the basis of my impression of student overall performance and enthusiasm

• Minimal limit for success – 40 point.

Geologic time

•Absolute date/Absolute time

•Relative dating/Relative time

How we know time?

• Process → Rate of process → Time • Structural relations of rock bodies (lower

or higher)

Early ideas about the Earth/Time

• Non-Western cultures (China, India) thought of the Earth as eternal and unchanging or as changing cyclically

Early ideas about the Earth• Heraclitus of Ephesus (540-

480 BC)• The "doctrine of flux" which

viewed the whole cosmos as in a constant state of change. He expressed this view poetically as a metaphor: "You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you"

• Lucretius (95-55 BC); Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) – had naturalistic view

Early ideas about the Earth/Time

• The book of Genesis says that rocks were created together with mankind a few thousand years ago.

• Early miners had static view of the earth and time.

Early ideas about the Earth/TimeXenophanes of Colophon (570 BC-480 BC) saw shells high on the cliffs and suggested that the sea periodically covered the land

Herodotus (484-425 BC) suggested change of shoreline

Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686)

• Dane • Noted that the teeth of

the shark are the same as the glossopetrae (tongue stones) so often found as fossils

• "The prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's dissertation concerning a solid body enclosed by a process of nature within a solid"

Relative dating

Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686)

is the founder of relative

dating

Steno's Laws • Original horizontality

• Original continuity

• Superposition

Original horizontality

Original horizontality

These folded rocks were originally were horizontal

Original continuity

Original continuity

Law of superposition

Principal of inclusion

Principle of cross-cutting relationships

Early time scales• Johann Gottlob Lehmann (1700-1767),

professor at the mining academy in Berlin

(1) Ganggebirge

(2) Flötzgebirge

(3) Landslide, volcanic eruptions post Noah's time

• Giovanni Arduino (1713-1795), professor of mineralogy at Padua, Italy

• (1) Primary (2) Secondary (3) Tertiary.

Historical perspective

• Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750-1817) Freiberg Mining Academy which he made the center of geology in Europe, is the founder of Neptunism.

Wernerian Scheme

1. Primitive (Ürgebirge)

2. Transition (Übergangsgebirge)

3. Stratified (Flötz)

4. Alluvial (Aufgeschwemmte)

5. Volcanic. Young. Resulted from burning of coal.

• Leopold von Buch (1774-1853) accepted igneous origin of basalt

• Plutonists

• James Hutton (1726–1797): Member of the Oyster Club and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Valued natural laws.• Concept of uniformitarianism and unconformities

Uniformitarianism

• The present is the key to the past

J. HuttonRock cycle

• Hutton and unconformity and estimation of the earth age.

• Catastrophism

Historical perspective

• Charles Lyell (1797-1875) in 1830-1833 published three volumes Principles of Geology

• Actualism and gradualism

Fossils and correlation• William Smith (1769-1839), the first professional geologist• He invented the Principle of faunal succession (1796)

• Geological map of England and Wales (Smith, 1815)

Back to catastrophism

• Baron George Cuvier (1769-1832)

• Mammoth and catastrophes

Time Rock (stratigraphic

record) Human bones

Mammoth bones

Upper time limit for mammoth

Lower time limit for men

Cuvier’s biostratigraphy

Back to catastrophism

• Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847) studied Paris Basin (1811)

Lyell’s “clock”

Period Living species

Newer Pliocene

90

Older Pliocene

33-50

Miocene 17

Eocene 3.5

Relative versus numerical age• “Begat” method

• Archbishop James Ussher of Ireland (1581-1665) declared that the Earth was created in the evening of October 22, 4004 BC

Relative versus numerical age• Assumption: Physical properties of the

Earth had change uniformly through time• Increase in ocean salinity: Jolly, 1899, –

90 Ma• Rate of sediment accumulation: estimates

between 1860-1909 – 100 Ma• Cooling from an initial molten state:

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) – 100 Ma

• Modern geochronology: The age of the Earth is 4.56 Ga (billion years)

Naming of the Eras, Periods, and Systems

• Paleozoic era – Adam Sedgwick (1839)• Mesozoic era – John Phillips (1840)• Cenozoic (Kainozoic) – John Phillips

(1840)

Tertiary – Tuscany, Giovanni Arduino 1760

Jurassic – Jura Mountains, Alexandre von Humboldt 1799

Cretaceous – southern England, northern France, and Belgium, d'Omalius d'Halloy, 1822

Triassic – Germany , Friedrich August von Albert, 1815

Silurian – Welsh, Murchison, 1835

Cambrian – northern Wales, Sedgwick, 1835

Ordovician – Charles Lapworth, 1879

Devonian – William Lonsdale, 1837

Permian – Urals, Roderick Murchison 1840 and 1841