Terrigenous Slope and Basin Systems

Slope and basin systems originate in relatively deep water beyond the shelf break. Although this environment encompasses a bathymetric range from upper slope at depths of several hundred feet to the abyssal plain at several thousand feet, many economically important ancient slope systems originated at more modest depths along the margins of shallow intracratonic seas (Galloway and Brown, 1972); others originated ahead of prograding oceanic delta systems and were carried to substantially greater depths by ongoing subsidence and growth faulting (Caughey, 1981; Galloway et al., 1982).