allostratigraphy

English

Etymology

From allo- +‎ stratigraphy.

Noun

allostratigraphy (usually uncountable, plural allostratigraphies)

(geology) The study and classification of rock strata by their bounding surfaces, such as unconformities and other types of uncomformable contacts that create discontinuities in the rock record.
Coordinate terms: biostratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, climatostratigraphy, cyclostratigraphy, electrostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, tectonostratigraphy
- 1996, Cliff Ollier, Regolith, Soils and Landforms, Chichester, West Sussex, […]: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 178:
  The only example we know is the study of the allostratigraphy of Quaternary terrace deposits in the Polish Carpathians by Zuchiewicz (1988), in which individual mapping units included gravels, solifluction deposits and loess.
- 1999, A. P. Jones, “Background to Sedimentary Facies”, in The Description & Analysis of Quaternary Stratigraphic Field Sections, London: Quaternary Research Association, →ISBN, page 24:
  North (1996) believed that allostratigraphy is in effect an extension of Miall's architectural element analysis and is a more natural method of subdividing sediments for interpretative purposes than the conventional lithostratigraphy.
- 2002, M. H. Rider, The Geological Interpretation of Well Logs, 2nd edition, Sutherland: Rider French Consulting Ltd., →ISBN, page 253:
  The modern North American tendency is to prefer allostratigraphy to lithostratigraphy in defining formal units (NACSN, 1983). Allostratigraphy uses the bounding limits of a sediment interval to define it, the contrary to lithostratigraphy which defines what the interval is.

Derived terms

allostratigraphic