StratFit: An Excel Workbook for correlation of multiple stratigraphic trends

Abstract

Correlation of distinct stratigraphic sequences is often critical to characterize evolution of sedimentary basins, as well as for exploration of georesources and for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions. Stratigraphic correlation is usually based on signal match- ing between two or multiple proxies’ records. Commonly, stratigraphers have to approach the correlation issue with time-consuming meth- ods or specific software that may not be easily accessible or may not allow a full and direct control of the adopted procedure. In this work, we propose a new simple tool, which consists of a single Microsoft Excel workbook (that we named StratFit) organized in work- sheets and allows an easy correlation of different stratigraphic curves and immediate visualization of the results. The correlation pro- cess is based on the FORECAST function and linear regression between subsequent couples of selected tie-points. The program is open source, user-friendly and allows a full control of the correlation process since all the computations are accessible for user’s inspection and improvement. The StratFit workbook and the user manual are freely distributed and can be downloaded as supplementary material.