Tide-dominated estuarine facies in the Hollin and Napo ('T' and 'U') formations (Cretaceous), Sacha field, Oriente Basin, Ecuador: Reply

摘要

We conclude at the outset that Higgs's (2002) dis-cussion is not based on his examination of core and outcrop of the Hollin and Napo formations in the Sacha field in Ecuador that we used (Shanmugam et al., 2000). Our conclusion is based on (1) the lack of any reference to hig own core or outcrop study of the Sacha field, (2) the lack of specific details of core de-scriptions from the Sacha field, and (3) the lack of any photographic documentation of sedimentary features from e Sacha field in support of his tidal shelf model. A rigorous photographic documentation of sedimentological. A rigorous photographic documentationof sedimentological features is imperative in critiquing our article, which is aimed at interpreting process sed-imentology using core and out crop. We have published 14 core photographs and one outcrop photo-graph showing various sedimentological details, but Higgs (2002) has failed to comment on details of any of those photographs. We would have found his discussion scientifically meaningful had he based his critique on his direct examination of core and outcrop used in our study or on his critique of our observations made on those photographs. In our response presented in this article, we show that Higgs's (2002) discussion is irrelevant to the central theme of our article, which is interpretation of core and outcrop in understanding tidal processes in estuarine environments. We address each major issue in the same order and heading under which Higgs (2002) discussed them.