Sedimentary Basin Analysis, Tectonics and Sedimentation

Question 1

What is a sedimentary basin?

Answer 1

Those areas in which sediments can accumulate to considerable thickness and be preserved for long geological time periods

Question 2

What does the study of sedimentary basins involve?

Answer 2

The understanding of their mechanisms of formation, their sedimentary fill, their stratigraphic architecture and their history as they evolved through geolgical time

Question 3

Approximatley how large are sedimentary basins?

Answer 3

100km long and 10’s of km wide

Question 4

The 3 types of active and inactive basing?

Answer 4

Active: Sedimentary basins still accumulating sediemtns

Inactive but little deformed: Sed. basins showing more or less their original shape and sedimentary fill

Strongly deformed and incomplete former sed basins: Where the original fill has been partly lost to erosion, for example a mountain belt

Question 5

What controlls the regional deposition of sediments, non-deposition, or denudation of older rocks?

Answer 5

Tectonic movements

Question 6

Techniques of basin analysis

Answer 6

Involves the study of the characteristics of sediments and sediemntary rocks that fill the basin, and interpreting these characteristics in terms of sed and basin history
Uses techniques of data aquisiton through outcrop studies, subsurface methods like deep drilling, magnetic polarity etc

Question 7

Applications of basin analysis

Answer 7

Interpreting geological history and economic applications