Abstract A unified system of collecting structural data from drill core is proposed. The system encompasses planes and planar fabrics, lineations, fold hinges and hinge surfaces, faults and shear zones, vorticity vectors, shear directions and shear senses. The system is based on standard measurements of angles in the reference frame of the core (α and β angles), which are easily carried out by means of core protractors or templates. The methods for dealing with folds and kinematic analysis of shear zones have not been described previously, but they follow logically from the standard methods for dealing with planes and lines.

Abstract A deterministic computer program has been developed to simulate the stratigraphic evolution of two-dimensional transects across sedimentary basins. Clastic, carbonate, and mixed clastic-carbonate systems can be simulated. The main application of the program is to simulate basin stratigraphy using all available data as constraints. In this paper we concentrate on the simulation of carbonate systems and illustrate the following two specific applications of the program. (1) The history of sea-level fluctuations is reconstructed using the stratigraphy and geometry of carbonate systems as constraints. In a first example, the architecture of isolated Miocene carbonate buildups is simulated using sea-level curves similar to published eustatic charts. In a second example, the stratigraphic patterns at the margin of a Mesozoic cratonic carbonate basin are used to derive an estimate of the sea-level history. (2) Our understanding of the controls on carbonate platform architecture is improved by isolating individual processes. In this respect, we investigate the possible significance of isostasy in controlling the formation of intra- and inter-platform basins and in the initiation of carbonate pinnacles.