You wouldn’t go in the early basement during the upper afternoon, don’t you?

I remember it perfectly. It was 13 years ago, while writing my first manuscript, I was first confronted with that thing that challenges a lot of junior stratigraphers, especially when they are not a native English: Geochronology vs. Chronostratigraphy! Or to simplify, how to properly distinguish time and time-rock units in your writings.

Several papers have been published on this subject, out of which I would recommend the recent Zalasiewicz et al. (2013). But, although these papers do provide a very clear scientific explanation on this subject, I always remember myself 13 years ago and how difficult it was for me back in those days to understand these concepts!

So, is it that difficult? Or is there an easy way to spot the light at the end of the tunnel? Well, if you have spotted the oddness in the title of this blog, the good news is that you have already made 3/4 of the way. Of course, the trick is in the use of early/late vs. lower/upper, that is to say on the distinction between time (geochronology) and space (chronostratigraphy), respectively.

Let’s have a little test to check that. Which of the following five sentences are wrong?
1. The late Bajocian is 500m-thick in this region.
2. The upper Bajocian can be correlated throughout this region.
3. The lower Bajocian has experienced environmental changes.
4. A carbon cycle perturbation occurred during the early Bajocian.
5. The lower Bajocian carbon isotope excursion.

Without having too much suspense: it’s the sentences 1 and 3 that are wrong.
In sentence #1, the term “late” is used whereas the sentence makes reference to time-rock unit, i.e. chronostratigraphy. Here, Bajocian refers to the thickness of the sedimentary sequence, so one should use the term “upper”. However, if you insist on using “late”, then you should write the sentence as following: “The thickness of the sedimentary succession dated from the late Bajocian is 500m”.
In sentence #3, we have the opposite case, i.e. the use of “lower” while referring to time, i.e. geochronology. It is as odd as “having a meeting in the upper afternoon”.

There you go, you have done 3/4 of the way. What about the last quarter? The answer is in sentence #5. It is indeed correct, and refers to the carbon isotope excursion you have measured in the Lower Bajocian, i.e. in the section you have worked on. But writing “the early Bajocian carbon isotope excursion” is also correct, but this time it refers to the carbon cycle perturbation that has occurred during the early Bajocian. You know… the one that is recorded in the lower Bajocian! But never say that it is recorded in the early Bajocian, that would be wrong.

Reference:
Zalasiewicz, J., Cita, M.B., Hilgen, F.J., Pratt, B.R., Strasser, A., Thierry, J. and Weissert, H. (2013) Chronostratigraphy and geochronology: A proposed realignment. GSA Today 23, 4–8.

Author: Dr. Stéphane Bodin, University of Aarhus