Sedimentary Basins: Tectonic Recorders of Sediment Discharge from Drainage Catchments

The sedimentary basin is to geology what the drainage system is to geomorphology, with sediment flux being a unifying link between the two features and disciplines. The global sediment discharge from contents to oceans contributes to major mass recycling associated with plate subduction. Major plate reorganization is accompanied by small fluctuations in continental volumes due to recycling of sediment stored along the sink-like passive margins. In continental sedimentary basins the SEdiment Preservation RAtio (SEPRA) depends upon the tectonic ‘drawdown’ of sediment flux preserved in the subsurface until basin inversion. Major unsteadiness in sediment discharge arises from teconic or climatic causes, the latter prominent in the Quaternary to Holocene record. Contrasting trends in sediment discharge reflect both the nature of climate and vegetation change and source rock lithology.