1988 Essays

Sea level history: Comment

Gradstein, Felix M.; Agterberg, F. P.; Aubry, Marie-Pierre; Berggren, William A.; Flynn, J. J.; Hewitt, R.; Kent, Dennis V.; Klitgord, K. D.; Miller, K. G.; Obradovitch, J.; Ogg, J. G.; Prothero, D. R.; Westerman, G. E. G.

The article "Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the Triassic" ( 1) provides a new version of the Exxon-based sea level and sedimentary cycles chart, calibrated to a new geological time scale. It is not clear to us (i) how and why this time scale differs from other recently published scales (2-5); (ii) what the criteria are that are used to correlate the first-, second-, and third-order sedimentary onlap events; and (iii) where the type sections are for the sedimentary sequences.