Current advances and future aspects of continental sequence stratigraphy

The sequence stratigraphy has undergone three stages of development since the last decades of years. The last decade, however, has seen a remarkable advance in the development of continental sequence stratigraphy. The continental lacustrine basins are quite variable in character compared with marine basins, in that: (1) they have polyphyletic origins of sediments. The depocentres and facies zones tend to be highly variable. (2) Generally speaking, the base levels of lake basins have changed in response to climates rather than eustatic fluctuations. (3) The vast discrepancies in internal structural differentiation and depositional and subsidence rates allow the sedimentary sequences to be more complicated. (4) The lacustrine sequences in faulted basins are primarily constrained by regional tectonic and episodic events. For these reasons, the continental sequence stratigraphy is probably one of the most actively studied in the world. This brief review paper gives in detail the insights from recent developments within the research on the sequence stratigraphy, especially the continental sequence stratigraphy, and future aspects for the better resolution of the future research and oil and gas exploration.