Economic Significance
These events have economic significance because these changes in sea level cause large lateral shifts in the depositional patterns of seafloor sediments. These lateral shifts in deposition create alternating layers of good reservoir quality rock (porous and permeable sands) and poorer-quality mudstones (capable of providing a reservoir "seal" to prevent the leakage of any accumulated hydrocarbons that may have migrated into the sandstones). Hydrocarbon prospectors look for places in the world where porous and permeable sands are overlain by low permeability rocks, and where conditions are right for hydrocarbons to be generated and migrate into these "traps".
Read more about this topic: Sequence Stratigraphy
Famous quotes containing the words economic and/or significance:
“Just as men must give up economic control when their wives share the responsibility for the family’s financial well-being, women must give up exclusive parental control when their husbands assume more responsibility for child care.”
—Augustus Y. Napier (20th century)
“It is necessary not to be Christian to appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of Christ.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)