The Bouma Sequence (1962) and the resurgence of geological interest in the French Maritime Alps (1980s): the influence of the Grès d’Annot in developing ideas of turbidite systems

Abstract

The two authors explain how and why the Grès d’Annot successions were chosen for their influential studies in the context of the 1960s and the 1980s. Arnold Bouma explains the origin of the Bouma Sequence in the 1960s, while Christian Ravenne focuses on the significance of the area as analogues of deep-sea fans and seismic stratigraphy in the 1980s. Ravenne recalls the main results obtained at that time: palaeogeographical maps, interpretative and synthetic sections, the spectacular onlap relationships at Chalufy, the strong interaction between seismic interpretation and field data, and the importance of large failures/collapses on the continental slope for the initiation of density surges.

Deep-water sand-fairway mapping as a tool for tectonic restoration: decoding Miocene central Mediterranean palaeogeography using the Numidian turbidites of southern Italy

“…Classical descriptions argue that outside these channels, flows are free to expand and wane and the reduction in the capacity of flows to carry grains generates simple fining-upwards beds that are characteristic of the classical so-called Bouma sequence (e.g. Bouma 1962;Bouma and Ravenne 2004;Fig. 1a).…”