Sequence stratigraphy on the craton: caveat emptor

Current practices of sequence stratigraphy originated from analyses of seismic profiles, largely the products of marine acquisition techniques developed in the seismic exploration of passive-margin successions, significantly enhanced by advances in digital recording and computer processing. The recognition of unconformity-bounded units and their systematic patterns of lithologic facies at reflection-resolvable thicknesses led to the successful application of seismic-stratigraphy concepts to finer-scale observations in outcrop. Students of the cover strata of the cratonic interior have not been slow to attempt application to the craton of the principles, practices, and terminology developed in regions of quite different tectonic behavior, hypsometry, and history. It is concluded that cratonic stratigraphers have much to learn from the new sequence stratigraphy, but meaningful progress is inhibited by forcing cratonic stratigraphy to conform to principles, definitions, and practices developed for a different set of conditions.