MODELING MIDCONTINENT PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS STRATIGRAPHY

Extensive progress has been made in genetic stratigraphy in the past 65 years since the concept of cyclothems was introduced by Marvin Weller (1930) and R.C. Moore (1931) and cratonic sequences by Lawrence Sloss in 1963. Advances have been made on many fronts, in particular: 1) sequence and seismic sequence stratigraphic concepts and classifications, 2) use of Modern and Neogene analogs; 3) new insights from high-resolution paleontology and geochemistry; 4) forecasting lithofacies and petrophysical, geophysical, and mechanical properties; 5) advent of forward and inverse stratigraphic modeling; and 6) development and access to large digital data volumes and accompanying computer imaging and visualization.

Outstanding questions in refining the understanding of short-term and longer term variations in climate, eustacy, and tectonics will only be realized through increasingly precise dating of these global and regional processes and the sedimentary response. Improved forecasting of properties of genetic units will be enhanced through inferences of the unique interactions of these processes. This paper summarizes contributions toward this end as applied to Midcontinent Permo-Carboniferous stratigraphy: 1) understanding the time-dependence of cycles, 2) evaluating and testing uncertainty and nonlinearity as an integral part of stratigraphic analysis, and 3) visualization and imaging of 3D stratigraphic data aiding in definition of patterns and trends in lithofacies and petrophysical properties and inferring causal processes.