Some tests of the Exxon global cycle chart

The Exxon global cycle chart is now widely used as a stratigraphic correlation tool, although it remains a controversial one. It requires continual testing against new data, but tests are difficult at present because the assumptions behind the chart have not so far been precisely specified. Some reasonable assumptions are made here, and a few simple tests are then proposed on the basis of these. Some of these tests are appropriate to specific situations in which the lest data are estimated sequence boundary ages: others are for situations in which sets of undated sequence boundaries are available that are only known to lie within particular parts of the Exxon chart. No general test for the Exxon chart has yet been developed, and the specifications for such a test are discussed.