Parasequences and Stacking Patterns
A parasequence is a relatively conformable, genetically related succession of beds and bedsets bounded by marine flooding surfaces and their correlative surfaces. The flooding surfaces bounding parasequences are not of the same scale as the regional transgressive surface that is associated with a sequence boundary.
The parasequences are the separated into stacking patterns:
- Aggradational
- Progradational
- Retrogradational
Each stacking pattern will give different information on the behaviour of accommodation space, a major control of which is relative level. So a rapidly progradational pattern will be indicative of falling sea level, rapidly retrogradational is evidence for rapidly transgressing sea level and aggradational will be indicative of gently rising sea level.
Read more about this topic: Sequence Stratigraphy
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