Non‐uniqueness and symmetry in stratigraphic interpretations:A quantitative approach for determining stratal controls

Different combinations of stratal controls could produce identical sequence architectures. Consequently, interpretations of the stratigraphic record, for example to infer palaeo-climate and eustatic sea-level history, suffer from non-uniqueness. However, variations in the multiple controls can be encapsulated through discovery of all possible solutions to an interpretation. As this paper demonstrates, a single solution can be directly transformed into an alternative solution that leaves the expected geological outcomes unaltered, which can be regarded as the existence of symmetry in the interpretation. Repetitive application of the symmetry method can therefore allow additional solutions to be rapidly derived given an existing solution. The proposed method has been adapted to a stratigraphic forward model for interpreting the Baltimore Canyon (USA) stratigraphy. Modelling results have indicated the ranges of changes in relative sea-level, sediment supply and subaerial erosion from Oligocene to Mid-Miocene. Using these limits, it is possible to determine what appears to be true in the palaeo-history, even when a solution is not unique

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Expedition 308 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) was the fi rst phase of a two-component project dedicated to studying overpressure and fl uid fl ow on the continental slope of the Gulf of Mexico. We examined how sedimentation, overpressure, fl uid fl ow, and deformation are coupled in a passive margin setting and investigated how extremely rapid deposition of fi ne-grained mud might lead to a rapid build-up of pore pressure in excess of hydrostatic (overpressure), underconsolidation, and sedimentary masswasting. Our tests within the Ursa region, where sediment accumulated rapidly in the late Pleistocene, included the first-ever in situ measurements of how physical properties, pressure, temperature,and pore fluid compositions vary within low-permeability mudstones that overlie a permeable, overpressured aquifer, and we documented severe overpressure in the mudstones overlying the aquifer. We also drilled and logged three references sites in the Brazos-Trinity Basin IV and documented hydrostatic pressure conditions and normalconsolidation. Post-expedition studies will address how the generation and timing of overpressure control slope stability, seafl oor seeps, and large-scale crustal fluid fl ow. The operations ofExpedition 308 provide a foundation for future long-term in situ monitoring experiments in the aquifer and bounding mudstones