Accuracy is a primary consideration when describing sedimentary rocks. Distortion of an exposure forces accuracy to be sacrificed, no matter how lucid a description may be. One of the most common causes of distortion is an exposure that is not perpendicular to the bedding.

This study investigates and quantifies both mathematically and graphically the amount of distortion caused by exposures that are not stratigraphically perpendicular to bedding.

Distortion increases at an increasing rate as exposures change from stratigraphically perpendicular to bedding to parallel to the bedding. Exposures that are stratigraphically perpendicular have zero distortion, while those parallel to the bedding have total stratigraphic distortion.