Chronology of Fluctuating Sea Levels Since the Triassic

TLDR

Sequence stratigraphy and depositional models explain the origin of sedimentary packages during sea‑level cycles, enabling recognition of sea‑level events in subsurface and outcrop data and leading to detailed global cycle charts of the past 250 million years. The study aims to create a realistic, accurate time scale and broadly applicable chronostratigraphy by integrating depositional sequences from public outcrop sections across multiple basins into this framework. The authors describe an approach that combines these sequences with the chronostratigraphic framework and present results illustrated by sea‑level cycle charts for the Cenozoic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic. The results, shown in sea‑level cycle charts for the Cenozoic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic, demonstrate the applicability of the proposed chronostratigraphic framework.

Abstract

Advances in sequence stratigraphy and the development of depositional models have helped explain the origin of genetically related sedimentary packages during sea level cycles. These concepts have provided the basis for the recognition of sea level events in subsurface data and in outcrops of marine sediments around the world. Knowledge of these events has led to a new generation of Mesozoic and Cenozoic global cycle charts that chronicle the history of sea level fluctuations during the past 250 million years in greater detail than was possible from seismic-stratigraphic data alone. An effort has been made to develop a realistic and accurate time scale and widely applicable chronostratigraphy and to integrate depositional sequences documented in public domain outcrop sections from various basins with this chronostratigraphic framework. A description of this approach and an account of the results, illustrated by sea level cycle charts of the Cenozoic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic intervals, are presented.