Stratigraphy: A Modern Synthesis

The updated textbook is intended to serve as an advanced and detailed treatment of the evolution of the subject of stratigraphy from its disparate beginnings as separate studies of sedimentology, lithostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, etc., into a modern integrated discipline in which all components are necessary. There is a historical introduction, which now includes information about the timeline of the evolution of the components of modern stratigraphy. The elements of the various components (facies analysis, sequence stratigraphy, mapping methods, chronostratigraphic methods, etc.) are outlined, and a chapter discussing the modern synthesis is included near the end of the book, which closes with a discussion of future research trends in the study of time as preserved in the stratigraphic record.

Andrew Miall has been Professor of Geology at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, since 1979, where his focus is teaching and research on the stratigraphy and sedimentology of sedimentary basins. His particular interest is in sequence stratigraphy, in the sedimentology of non-marine sandstones, and their characteristics as reservoir rocks for non-renewable resources. He is the inaugural holder of the Gordon Stollery Chair in Basin Analysis and Petroleum Geology, which was founded in 2001. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995. Andrew Miall was Vice President of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada from 2005 to 2007 and President of the Academy from 2007-2009. From 2000–2004, Andrew Miall served as Canada’s Representative to the NATO Science and the Environment Program’s “Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society,” during which time he assisted in the organization of several international workshops dealing with naturalhazards. In 2010–2011, he served on expert panels struck by the Government of Canada and the Alberta Government to examine the environmental management of the Alberta Oil Sands. In 2019, Andrew Miall retired from teaching. He edited special research collections and has been Author of research-level technical books, as well as textbooks.