Accommodation space

Accommodation space is the volume available for sediment to accumulate below a depositional level. It is created or reduced by changes in relative sea level and the movement of the basin floor.

Relative sea level: The height of the sea surface relative to the land at a particular place and time. Its rise or fall changes the space available for sediment to accumulate.
Sediment: Loose mineral, rock, or biological particles that can be transported and deposited. Accommodation is the space these particles may occupy after deposition.
Sequence stratigraphy: The analysis of genetically related sedimentary strata bounded by surfaces of erosion or nondeposition. It uses accommodation and sediment supply to explain stratigraphic stacking patterns.
Sediment accumulation rate: The amount of sediment deposited per unit time or area over a specified interval. It measures filling, whereas accommodation describes the space available to be filled.
Eustasy: Global change in mean sea level, chiefly caused by changes in ocean-water volume or the capacity of ocean basins. Global sea-level change can create or remove accommodation across many basins.
Deposition: The settling or emplacement of transported sediment at Earth's surface. Only deposited material fills accommodation space.
Systems tract: A set of contemporaneous depositional systems forming a predictable part of a stratigraphic sequence. Systems tracts represent different stages in the creation and filling of accommodation.
Accommodation-to-sediment-supply ratio: A comparison of the rate of accommodation creation with the rate of sediment delivery. The ratio predicts whether strata aggrade, prograde, or retrograde.
Subsidence: The downward movement of Earth's surface relative to a fixed datum. Basin-floor subsidence creates space even without a global sea-level rise.
Stratigraphy: The study of rock layers, their sequence, distribution, and relationships through time. Accommodation is inferred from the geometry and stacking of sedimentary layers.

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