Quantitative Geology of Late Jurassic Epicontinental Sediments in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland

Book excerpt: The book summarizes about 40 years of the author’s research on sedimentary geology in an epicontinental (shelf) sea during the Late Jurassic in northern Switzerland. It presents a synopsis of the interplay of varying paleoclimate, of sea level variations, of varying water depth, of sea floor topography, of vertical and lateral facies changes, of processes of sedimentation like aggradation and progradation, of compaction, of the great regional differences in rates of sedimentation and in isostatic equilibration of the lithosphere under load, and of concomitant synsedimentary tectonics. Regional variation in isostatic adjustment of the lithosphere to the increasing load of sediments is analyzed by means of time correlations based on a detailed biochronology of ammonites in combination with mineral stratigraphy using the comparatively stable clay mineral kaolinite, and with sequence stratigraphy.