Stratigraphic Sections, Bedding Sequences, and Random Processes
Donald D. Carr 1,
Alan Horowitz 1,
S. V. Hrabar 1,
Kathleen F. Ridge 1,
Rosalia Rooney 1,
W. Thomas Straw 1,
William Webb 1, and
Paul Edwin Potter 1
1 Department of Geology, Indiana University, Bloomington
Both dependent and independent random processes can be used to study and synthesize stratigraphic sections and bedding sequences. Synthetic stratigraphic sections can be modeled to fit any geologic problem with a good correspondence between the synthetic and actual stratigraphic sections. To synthesize a sedimentary sequence, one needs only a transition procedure to go from one lithology or bedding type to another, and frequency distributions of thickness for the various lithologies. A sedimentation process with a "memory" is termed Markovian; if the past has no influence on either present or future sedimentation, it is called an independent trials process.
