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Ú'EOLOGICAL3OCIETYOF!MERICA
Fractal nature of stratigraphic sequences
Wolfgang Schlager* Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands

ABSTRACT distinct sequence architecture to all orders of

Orders of stratigraphic sequences are being used loosely and with widely varying def- sequences were proposed by Vail et al. (1991)
initions. The orders seem to be subdivisions of convenience rather than an indication of and Duval et al. (1998).
natural structure. It is proposed that, at least at time scales of 103–106 yr, sequences and Standard sequences, parasequences, and
systems tracts are scale-invariant fractal features in which units bounded by exposure simple sequences were first defined on silici-
surfaces and units bounded by flooding surfaces are about equally likely. Support for this clastic data sets. However, carbonates have
conceptual model derives from the well-known facts that (1) sediment architecture is large- several properties that make them particularly
ly scale invariant over a wide range of scales in time and space; (2) first-order trends of useful for the study of exposure and flooding
sea-level movements and sedimentation rates are fractal on all geologically relevant time events. (1) Carbonates are highly sensitive to
scales; and (3) detailed studies in carbonates indicate approximately equal abundance of exposure because above sea level, carbonate
flooding surfaces and demonstrable exposure surfaces among unit boundaries. Finally, production rapidly goes to zero. (2) Marine
traces of prograding shelf edges that step up and step down in response to sea-level chang- deposits are rapidly lithified upon exposure,
es are demonstrated in this study to have a fractal nature. and the cements of this terrestrial lithification
are vastly different from the marine cements
Keywords: fractals, sedimentation rates, sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy. encountered on a marine transgressive surface.
(3) Terrestrial erosion proceeds largely by dis-
INTRODUCTION even larger. Moreover, the values do not seem solution, which creates much internal porosity
When introducing the principles of se- to converge with time and improving data. but retards destruction of the preceding high-
quence stratigraphy, Vail et al. (1977) noted Figure 2 plots the durations of sequence cy- stand surface.
that sequences may vary in thickness from cles of 2nd and 3rd order on the sea-level Figure 3 presents data from carbonate
1023 to 103 m and in duration from ,106 yr to curve of Haq et al. (1987). The two categories rocks, showing the proportions of two types
108 yr. They proposed a hierarchy of orders of clearly differ in their modes but broadly over- of boundaries for sequences in the range of
different duration to subdivide the sequence- lap in range. Hardenbol et al. (1998) aban- ;104–106 yr.
stratigraphic record. Since then, orders defined doned the subdivision into 2nd- and 3rd-order Parasequence boundary. The depositional
by duration have been widely used. In addi- cycles, rightly pointing out that better under- environment shoals to shallow-marine or
tion, it was proposed that sequences of differ- standing of mechanisms is required to justify supratidal conditions; after some time of non-
ent orders also differ in depositional architec- this classification. deposition, the area is reflooded, and marine
ture (Van Wagoner et al., 1990; Vail et al., Soon after their introduction as categories deposition is resumed.
1991). in time, sequence orders were also character- Standard sequence boundary. Marine
This essay presents a critique of the concept ized by their depositional architecture. An im- sedimentation is terminated by relative sea-
of orders in sequence stratigraphy and argues portant step was the recognition of parasequ- level fall and exposure (forced regression).
that the succession of sequences is fractal rath- ences—building blocks of classical sequences After a hiatus with terrestrial conditions, the
er than a hierarchy of orders. The argument that were made up of shoaling successions area is reflooded, and marine sedimentation is
rests on four components: (1) The duration of bounded by flooding surfaces (Van Wagoner resumed. Soil features such as root casts, cal-
the presumed orders varies widely, even with- et al., 1990). However, it was also observed crete crusts, and low d13C values indicating
in one publication. (2) Exposure surfaces and that in some instances, the building blocks of influx of soil carbon are considered diagnostic
flooding surfaces as unit boundaries are both 3rd-order sequences were ‘‘simple sequences’’ of terrestrial exposure. Desiccation cracks are
common in a wide range of temporal scales. bounded by exposure surfaces (Vail et al.,
(3) Extensive studies on sea-level fluctuations 1991, p. 630). Classifications that assigned
and sedimentation rates have shown that the
principal trends of both are fractal. (4) Limited
data on shelf edges that prograde and step up
and down in response to sea level indicate that
these traces, too, are fractal.

ORDERS OF STRATIGRAPHIC
SEQUENCES—AN EVALUATION
Although the principle of defining orders by
duration has been almost universally followed,
the actual values used in the definitions scatter
widely. Figure 1 shows the definitions used in
key publications since the introduction of the
concept. In the range of 2nd to 3rd order, the
discrepancies at any one boundary are about Figure 1. Duration of orders of stratigraphic
one-half order; for shorter categories, they are sequences as defined by various authors. In
each category, oldest publication is on top. Figure 2. Durations of sea-level cycles of 3rd
Note large differences, particularly in 4th– and 2nd order of eustatic curve of Haq et al.
*E-mail: wolfgang.schlager@falw.vu.nl. 6th orders. (1987). Two orders broadly overlap.

q 2004 Geological Society of America. For permission to copy, contact Copyright Permissions, GSA, or editing@geosociety.org.
Geology; March 2004; v. 32; no. 3; p. 185–188; doi: 10.1130/G20253.1; 5 figures. 185
Figure 3. Proportions of se-
quences terminated by expo-
sure surfaces (black) and by
flooding surfaces (gray) in well-
documented carbonate rocks.
Each bar represents measured
section with number of ana-
lyzed surfaces on left. Top pan-
el: cycles longer than 1 m.y.
Bottom panel: cycles shorter
than 1 m.y. Sources: Buchbin-
der et al. (2000), D’Argenio et al.
(1997, 1999), Egenhoff et al.
(1999), Föllmi et al. (1994), Hill-
gärtner (1999), Immenhauser et
al. (2001, 2004), Minero (1988),
Saller et al. (1993), Strasser and
Hillgärtner (1998), Van Buchem
et al. (2000, 1996), Wendte et al.
(1992), and Wendte and Muir
(1995).
considered supratidal features, as is meniscus
cement if it occurs in supratidal deposits.
Two important criteria were used for data
inclusion in Figure 3: (1) detailed and specific
observations had been made on the nature of
each discontinuity surface, and (2) the au-
thor(s) accepted the possibility that a flooding
surface can be a sequence boundary.
Figure 3 indicates that standard sequences
bounded by exposure surfaces and parasequ-
ences bounded by flooding surfaces are both
common among cycles of 103–106 yr duration.
This demonstration is at variance with the as-
sumption of the standard model of sequence
stratigraphy that 3rd-order sequences are
bounded by exposure surfaces, whereas the
higher-order parasequences are bounded by
flooding surfaces.
SCALE-INVARIANT MODEL OF
SEQUENCES
Scale Invariance in the Sedimentary
Record
Sedimentation and erosion, the processes
that are ultimately responsible for the sedi-
ment record, operate in the same fashion over
a wide range of scales. It is characteristic of
hydrodynamics that flow properties are largely
determined by dimensionless ratios, and few
characteristic scales enter in the analysis. De-
positional patterns have been found to be scale
invariant over a wide range of time and space.
Examples include prograding clinoforms
(Thorne, 1995), systems-tract architecture on
meter-scale features formed in hours or days
186
(Posamentier et al., 1992; Posamentier and
Allen, 1999), fully developed sequences on
the scale of 105 yr during the Pliocene–
Pleistocene (e.g., Carter et al., 1991), and fa-
cies patterns in plan view (e.g., Rankey,
2002). In an even broader perspective, Van
Wagoner et al. (2003) interpreted sediment ac-
cumulation radiating from a point source as
energy-dissipation patterns that are scale-
invariant over the range of centimeters to
hundreds of kilometers.
Tests for fractal properties of long, contin-
uous sequence successions seem to be lacking
in the literature. Figure 4 presents two exam-
ples from small seismic data sets showing mi-
gration paths of prograding shelf breaks. The
fine structure of these paths was tested by box-
counting (Turcotte, 1997, p. 135). This tech-
nique measures the ‘‘wiggliness’’ of a curve
and tests for fractal properties by covering the
entire curve with progressively smaller boxes
and plotting box size against the number of
boxes needed to cover the curve. A straight-
line (power-law) relationship in a bilogarithm-
ic plot suggests a fractal. The slope of the line
is the fractal dimension, a measure of the in-
tricacy of the pattern. In Figure 4, power-law
relationships were found, suggesting fractal
properties. Other examples of prograding mar-
gins yielded similar results. However, the di-
agnosis is somewhat tenuous because the
power-law region covers less than two orders
of spatial magnitude.
Strong evidence for scale invariance in the
time domain has been observed on two fun-
Figure 4. Migrating shelf breaks on Great
Bahama Bank (Eberli and Ginsburg, 1988)
and offshore New Jersey (Greenlee, 1988)
during Cenozoic phases of progradation. A:
Part of migration path of Bahama shelf
break (as I determined by using Western
Geophysical seismic line described in Eberli
and Ginsburg [1988]); TWT—two-way trav-
eltime. B: Fractal analysis of shelf-break mi-
gration paths using box-counting technique
(see text). Straight-line trends for box sizes
221–226 and 227, respectively, indicate
power-law relationship between box size
and number of boxes required to cover
curve. This result, in turn, suggests that
paths of shelf-break migration are fractal
features in these limits. Trends on right are
somewhat irregular because of finite-size ef-
fects (dashed part); trends break down on
left because of limited seismic resolution
(dotted part).
damental sequence controls—sea-level and
sedimentation rates. (See Fluegeman and
Snow [1989]; Hsui et al. [1993], and Harrison
[2002] for sea-level rates and Sadler [1999]
for sedimentation rates.)
Conceptual Model of Fractal Sequence
Stratigraphy
The experience with the concept of orders
in sequence stratigraphy leads to the conclu-
sion that they are subdivisions of convenience.
Examination of the architecture of sediment
accumulations indicates that many patterns
relevant for the sequence model are invariant
in a wide range of scales. Moreover, sea-level
fluctuations and sedimentation rates, two basic
forcing factors of sequence architecture, prob-
ably have a fractal nature in the time domain.
On the basis of these observations and in-
sights, I propose the following conceptual
model. The pattern of sequences and systems
tracts is scale invariant and a statistical fractal.
In the arrangement of systems tracts and the
GEOLOGY, March 2004

Figure 5. Scale-invariant model of strati-
graphic sequences. S sequences, standard
type, and P sequences, parasequence type,
are assumed to both occur in about equal
proportions in 103–106 yr range. Shaded—
highstand systems tract; dotted—transgres-
sive systems tract; black—lowstand sys-
tems tract.
nature of sequence boundaries, two types are
about equally likely in the validity range of
the model (Fig. 5).
1. The S sequence, or standard sequence,
shows the following succession: highstand
tract → sequence boundary → lowstand tract
→ transgressive tract → highstand tract. The
sequence boundary is a type 1 or type 2
boundary caused by relative sea-level lower-
ing (forced regression).
2. The P sequence, or parasequence, shows
the following succession: highstand tract →
sequence boundary → transgressive tract →
highstand tract. The sequence boundary is a
type 3 boundary, i.e., a flooding surface that
overlies marine deposits without demonstrable
evidence of terrestrial exposure or forced re-
gression (Schlager, 1999).
The crucial distinction between the two
types is that S sequences are bounded by sur-
faces of forced regression that require a rela-
tive fall in sea level. P sequences are bounded
by type 3 sequence boundaries, i.e., flooding
surfaces that lack evidence of forced regres-
sion. Thus, P sequences and their type 3
boundaries may be formed by fluctuations in
sediment supply or by relative changes of sea
level. The type 3 sequence boundary was rec-
ognized as an important type of unconformity
by Vail and Todd (1981, their Fig. 3C) and by
Schlager (1999), who proposed the name.
Conservative estimates of the validity range
of the model are 103–106 yr in the time do-
main, 101–105 m in the horizontal directions
of space, and 100–103 m in the vertical. Jus-
tification of these ranges is given in the
following.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Validity Range of Conceptual Model
The time range of the model can be justified
as follows. The statistics on flooding vs. ex-
posure boundaries are based on cycles with
durations of 104–106 yr. Physical processes
GEOLOGY, March 2004
operate in similar fashion on much shorter
time scales. However, the formation of rec-
ognizable exposure surfaces depends on soil
processes whose rates are considerably lower.
Accumulation of organic matter, one of the
fastest soil processes, takes thousands of years
to advance significantly (e.g., Birkeland, 1999,
p. 215). The rather easily preserved calcretes
form at rates of several millimeters per 103 yr
(e.g., Robbin and Stipp, 1979). Finally, mod-
eling of rock-water interaction suggests that
significant decrease in bulk-rock d13C requires
103–104 yr (Yang, 2001). On the basis of these
indications, I assume that the formation of a
preservable exposure record, even in carbon-
ates, takes at least 103 yr. This number is taken
as the short time limit of the model because
it assumes that P and S sequences occur at
about equal proportions. Among sequences
shorter than 103 yr, P cycles are likely to dom-
inate because exposure surfaces are likely to
lack the diagnostic features.
The upper time limit for the fractal model
is set by lack of data. As Figure 3 includes no
cycles longer than 10 m.y., it seems prudent
to limit the validity range to sequences shorter
than 107 yr. Beyond this limit set by the da-
tabase, tectonics may set yet another limit.
Few margins of basins or continents exist for
108 yr without significant episodes of deform-
ation or magmatism. Consequently, the record
of cycles having a duration on the scale of 108
yr is largely derived from flooding and expo-
sure of continental interiors, whereas data on
shorter cycles mainly are from ocean margins.
This difference in setting may explain the
characteristics of first-order cycles reported by
Vail et al. (1991) and Duval et al. (1998).
The spatial range of the model is essentially
a consequence of the time limits. Over the
range of 103–106 yr, one typically observes
sequence packages that range in thickness
from 100 to 103 m and extend horizontally
from 101 to 105 m. The larger horizontal ex-
tent is a characteristic of nearly all sedimen-
tary bodies and reflects the fact that at the sur-
face of Earth, vertical gradients generally
exceed horizontal ones by several orders of
magnitude.
Fractal Sequence Model vs. Ordered
Hierarchy of Cycles
In many sequence data sets, the impression
of a hierarchy of cycles is very strong. The
model does not imply that this impression is
false. It is characteristic of fractals that the
same pattern is repeated at finer and finer
scales. Consequently, any snapshot of the
fractal taken at a certain resolution will show
a superposition of coarser and finer patterns.
The crucial difference to an ordered hierarchy
of cycles is their lack of characteristic scales.
The fractal model proposed here predicts that
the sequence record, like many other natural
time series, has the characteristics of noise
with variable persistence and thus variable
predictability (see Turcotte, 1997; Hergarten,
2002, for examples). The model also predicts
that in the sequence record, the effect of or-
dered oscillations, such as the orbital cycles,
generally is subtle and becomes dominant
only in special circumstances (see Harrison,
2002, for examples on sea level).
Purpose and Scope of the Model
The model is meant as a conceptual frame-
work to steer future data analysis and to pro-
vide a basis for statistical characterization of
sequences. A logical next step is to determine
fractal dimensions of important features of se-
quences and explore the limits of the fractal
domain. This insight, in turn, can be used for
interpolating between data sets and extrapo-
lating beyond technical limits of observation,
e.g., in seismic interpretation.
In its present form, the model says nothing
about the origin of the fractal patterns but per-
mits some speculations. Scale-invariant frac-
tals often appear as the result of other fractals
(e.g., Hergarten, 2002). Stratigraphic sequenc-
es are essentially shaped by the interplay of
rates of change in accommodation and rates
of sediment supply (Jervey, 1988; Schlager,
1993). As both rates show fractal properties,
it is not surprising that the resulting sequence
record inherits this attribute. At a more fun-
damental level, it may be the complexity of
depositional systems and their tendency to
evolve toward conditions of self-organized
criticality that give rise to fractal features in
sequence stratigraphy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Supported by the Vrije Universiteit Industrial As-
sociates in Sedimentology. I thank Stefan Hergarten
for advice on fractals, Heiko Hillgärtner, Gene Ran-
key, Peter Sadler, and Georg Warrlich for important
reviews, and Sam Purkis for writing a box-counting
program.
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Manuscript received 7 October 2003
Revised manuscript received 5 November 2003
Manuscript accepted 12 November 2003
Printed in USA
GEOLOGY, March 2004