marine flooding surface

Marine flooding surfaces are a fundamental concept in sequence stratigraphy, where they form the limiting surfaces of parasequences.

A marine flooding surfaces is defined as a sharp contact that separates overlying younger strata with deep-water facies from underlying older strata with shallow-water facies.{{Cite journal|last=Van Wagoner|first=JC|date=1988|title=An overview of the fundamentals of sequence stratigraphy and key definitions|language=en|publisher=Special Publications of SEPM}}{{cite book |last1=Patzkowsky |first1= Mark E. |first2=Steven M. |last2=Holland|year= 2012|title=Stratigraphic Paleobiology |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago University Press|pages=34}} Therefore, marine flooding surfaces indicate a deepening and can display signs of erosion and/or nondeposition resulting in a hiatus or break in the sedimentary record.