Stratigraphy

Book excerpt: This book, written by 33 stratigraphic experts, presents various processes available which will enable the location in time of all rock types: sedimentary, metamorphic, plutonic, and eruptive, whether they are in outcrop or at subsurface. The terminology and the appropriate practices for each method are presented in separate chapters and illustrated with concrete examples. The order of the chapters is modeled on the progression of the stratigraphic process, from the descriptive to the interpretative, from the methods of the geometric stratigraphy (lithostratigraphy and genetic stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy) to the chronological stratigraphy (biostratigraphy), followed by the chronometric stratigraphy (isotopic geochronology). The final two chapters are dedicated to chronostratigraphic units and correlations which combine the contributions of various methods and to the presentation of the 2007 version of the Geological Time Scale. The definitions of stratigraphic terms can be found in a glossary at the end of the work. The book is addressed to all professional geologists, from the industrial sector as well as those in universities, including teachers and researchers who would like to deepen their knowledge of the vocabulary, the concepts, the methods and the practical applications of different approaches of stratigraphy, a reference discipline for the entirety of the geological sciences.