Completeness of the geological record.

Area of Science:

• Geology
• Sedimentary geology
• Stratigraphy

Background:

• Assessing the completeness of sedimentary rock records is crucial for understanding geological history.
• Existing quantitative methods rely on geological literature data, which may introduce biases.
• Sedimentary thickness and accumulation rates are key parameters for completeness assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability of geological literature data for quantitative completeness estimation.
• To propose a more robust approach for assessing sedimentary section completeness.
• To investigate the relationship between sedimentary section thickness and completeness.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative assessment by comparing sedimentary section thickness to average accumulation rates.
• Estimation of average accumulation rates using sediment volume and continental area data.
• Comparison of literature-derived data with accumulation averages calculated from independent sediment volume data.

Main Results:

• Geological literature data are significantly biased and cannot reliably support quantitative completeness estimation methods.
• Accumulation averages derived from sediment volume data provide a more reliable benchmark.
• A comparison suggests that the thickest known sedimentary sections are likely to be extremely complete.

Conclusions:

• Quantitative completeness estimation methods relying solely on geological literature are unreliable.
• Sediment volume and continental area data offer a more robust basis for estimating average accumulation rates.
• The thickest sedimentary sections represent potentially the most complete geological records.