Test of seismic sequence methodology on a Southern Hemisphere passive margin: The Canterbury Basin, New Zealand

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“…Shell Todd), is available for the offshore Canterbury Basin (CB-82 profiles; e.g., Fulthorpe and Carter, 1989). Although the data cover an extensive area, they exhibit relatively low vertical resolution (20 m).…”

“…seismically resolvable record of depositional cyclicity in the offshore Canterbury Basin (Fulthorpe and Carter, 1989;Browne and Naish, 2003;Lu and Fulthorpe, 2004). Exploration wells indicate the presence of middle Miocene to recent sedimentary sequences that are generally correlative with those drilled on the New Jersey margin by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP).…”

The Place and Power of Myth in Geoscience: An Associate Editor's Perspective

“…Critics have pointed out that autocyclic sedimentary processes influence local seismic stratigraphy as strongly as allocyclic processes such as eustasy (Poulsen and others, 1998), that much sequence stratigraphy reflects regional tectonism (Summerhayes, 1986;Ettensohn, 1994;Nystuen, 1998) or fluctuating sediment supply (Fulthorpe and Carter, 1989) rather than eustasy, that the stratigraphic evolution of basin margins is influenced by flexural effects from sediment loading that can mimic supposed eustatic controls (Watts and Thomas, 1984), that the spacing in time of inferred global cycles is too close to be tested by biostratigraphic data (Miall, 1992), that carefully controlled magnetostratigraphy conflicts locally with age inferences derived from global cycle charts (Prothero, 2001), and that a systematic reduction in the apparent average duration of global eustatic cycles through MesozoicCenozoic time is better viewed as an artifact of methodology than as a valid record of Earth behavior (Dickinson, 1993).…”

Continuing the New Jersey Mid-Atlantic Sea-Level Transect

“…The emergence of seismic/sequence stratigraphy since the late 1970s has led to a revolution in stratigraphy and to a renewal of interest in the stratigraphic response to eustasy (global sea-level change; Vail et al, 1977Vail et al, , 1984Vail et al, , 1991Vail and Hardenbol, 1979;Loutit and Kennett, 1981;Berg and Woolverton, 1985;Haq et al, 1987Haq et al, , 1988Vail, 1987Vail, , 1992Cross and Lessenger, 1988;Posamentier et al, 1988;Sloss, 1988;Eberli and Ginsburg, 1989;Fulthorpe and Carter, 1989;Christie-Blick et al, 1990;Van Wagoner et al, 1990;Haq, 1991;Loucks and Sarg, 1993;Posamentier and James, 1993;Weimer and Posamentier, 1993;Christie-Blick and Driscoll, 1995;Fulthorpe and Austin, in press). Two arguments were advanced in support of the eustatic interpretation.…”