"Offering a solid introduction to the principles and applications of sedimentology and stratigraphy, author Richard A. Davis Jr. emphasizes the integration of these two areas and covers both modern and ancient depositional environments using modern examples and excellent illustrations. The Second Edition presents updated technical information, and offers a major reorganization of chapters to promote greater clarity and to place greater emphasis on more current topics. Additional content highlights: provides new approaches to basic analysis, including sequence stratigraphy; integrates genetically related depositional environments that share a common thread in concurrent chapters; discusses topics such as sedimentary processes and structures, the desert system, the fluvial system, the delta system, the barrier island system, reefs and the carbonate platform system, the deep ocean system, and much more." --

Nonrenewable energy resources, comprising fossil fuels and uranium, are not ran domly distributed within the Earth's crust. They formed in response to a complex array of geologic controls, notably the genesis of the sedimentary rocks that host most commercial energy resources. It is this genetic relationship between economic re sources and environment that forms the basis for this book. Our grouping of petro leum, coal, uranium, and ground water may appear to be incongruous or artificial. But our basic premise is that these ostensibly disparate resources share common genetic attributes and that the sedimentological principles governing their natural distributions and influencing their recovery are fundamentally similar. Our combined careers have focused on these four resources, and our experiences in projects worldwide reveal that certain recurring geologic factors are important in controlling the distribution of com mercial accumulations and subsurface fluid flow. These critical factors include the shape and stability of the receiving basin, the major depositional elements and their internal detail, and the modifications during burial that are brought about in these sediments by pressure, circulating fluids, heating, and chemical reaction. Since the first edition of this book in 1983, there has been a quantum leap in the volume of literature devoted to genetic stratigraphy and refinement of sedimentologi cal principles and a commensurate increase in the application of these concepts to resource exploration and development.

"Displaced or tectonostratigraphic terranes comprise a huge portion of real estate in the North American Cordillera. Terranes are discrete, fault-bound blocks of regional extent, with rocks and fossils that differ to a great extent from those of adjacent blocks. The allochthonous nature of most terranes, relative to adjacent craton, is well established. When mapped, they resemble a collage of mixed rock types, tectonic styles, metamorphism, and volcanic origins--each part resembling the pieces of a puzzle. Terrane studies remain integral to understanding the geological evolution of western North America. Since the initiation of the concept summarized in 1979 by the late David L. Jones, the significance of fossils and stratigraphy has been key to solving the puzzle. Chapters of this book written by experts in their field, provide a sense of the diversity of approaches in paleontology and stratigraphy. Contributions span geologic time from the Precambrian (Vendian) to Cretaceous and address over 20 Cordilleran terranes."--Publisher's website.

Suitable as a primary text for undergraduate courses in sedimentology and stratigraphy."--BOOK JACKET.