Map showing basins that are active today globally, represented in the color associated with their climate. Land that is actively subsiding allows space within which the geological archive can develop. Sediments may accumulate and form strata, and anything trapped in the layers can fossilize. The pie charts show that the basins are not preserving a truly representative record of the climate diversity on Earth.
Diagram originally published in “Is the present the key to the past? A global characterization of modern sedimentary basins” by Björn Nyberg & John A. Howell, Geology Volume 43, Number 7 July 2015 https://doi.org/10.1130/G36669.1
