Depositional and sequence stratigraphic model of transgressive shelf sandstone: The Late Cretaceous Tocito Sandstone, San Juan Bain, New Mexico, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT There has long been debate about the origin of long, linear, isolated shallow marine sandstones. In the 1980s these were routinely interpreted as wave- or tide-modulated shelf sandstones. With the advent of sequence stratigraphy, many of these sandstones were reinterpreted as top-truncated forced-regressive to lowstand delta or shoreface, inviting the question regarding whether the concept of a shelf sandstones remain a viable …