Abstract The rise of the Panama Isthmus was the last step in the closure of the circumtropical seaways. The closure of the Panama Isthmus had fundamental consequences for global ocean circulation, evolution of the tropical ecosystems and potentially influenced the switch to the modern ‘cold house’ climate mode. The Atlantic and Pacific marine ecosystems became gradually separated whereas terrestrial organisms suddenly had the means to migrate between North and South America. Combining high-resolution geochemical proxies for the closure history with data on fossil distributions and genetic data provides independent evidence on the closure history. These datasets provide new boundary conditions for Earth System models to simulate the effects of palaeoceanographic change on global climate and allow exploration of hypotheses for the Northern Hemisphere glaciation.

Development of a geologically constrained reservoir model and subsequent upscaling of the model for reservoir simulation depends on critical input parameters defining both the geometrical attributes and distribution of the targeted reservoir facies. To accurately characterize the potential reservoir, one must address the geologically defined variability in the system. Gross differences in sedimentary facies, as well as more local variations in aspects such as grain size/type, grain sorting, sedimentary structures, and diagenetic overprint, may all influence the internal makeup and geometry of sedimentary deposits and, thus, the heterogeneity of potential reservoirs. Integration of geologically based elements is, therefore, a fundamental step in the characterization of the probable lateral and vertical distribution and variability of reservoir facies in the subsurface. Such a geologically based model not only increases our understanding of reservoir heterogeneity but also provides the foundation for which the rest of the reservoir models and, ultimately, simulation models can be built. In the last several years, we have seen the development of high-resolution sequence and cycle stratigraphy, and with it, the advent of a refined mode of interpretation for depositional systems. Using a sequence-stratigraphic approach, sedimentary systems are analyzed dynamically through time, rather than as a single time slice, as was done previously with static depositional or facies models. These dynamic conceptual models offer better predictability of the distribution of potential reservoir facies and their reservoir quality, especially when combined with recent advances in our understanding of the detailed internal architecture and diagenesis of dep-ositional systems.

Abstract Depositional systems resemble newspapers that all report on the events of the day but each with a different editorial bias. It behooves the reader to learn about the editorial bias of his paper. Similarly, the geologist ought to know about the bias of depositional systems in recording sea level and other environmental factors. The three carbonate factories each have their own bias in recording sequence-stratigraphic events and all three differ to varying degrees from the siliciclastic standard model. This is not to say, however, that sequence stratigraphy does not apply to these systems. On the contrary, comparative sedimentology of depositional systems clearly shows that the basic features of the standard model are shared by all depositional systems, showing once again the power of sequence stratigraphy as a unifying concept. In this chapter, we base our discussion of carbonate sequence stratigraphy primarily on the deposits of the T factory. They are volumetrically dominant in the geologic record and their sequence stratigraphy is best known. The sequence stratigraphy of the C and M factories is developed in chapter 8 by comparison with the T factory and the standard model.