Back-stripping is a geophysical analysis technique used on sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....

 sequences - it is used to isolate factors which contribute to basin formation/filling other than sediment loading. It is a method by which successive layers of basin

Sedimentary basin

The term sedimentary basin is used to refer to any geographical feature exhibiting subsidence and consequent infilling by sedimentation. As the sediments are buried, they are subjected to increasing pressure and begin the process of lithification...

 fill sediment

Sediment

Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....

 are "stripped off" the total stratigraphy

Stratigraphy

Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....

 during analysis of that basin's history. In a typical scenario, a sedimentary basin

Sedimentary basin

The term sedimentary basin is used to refer to any geographical feature exhibiting subsidence and consequent infilling by sedimentation. As the sediments are buried, they are subjected to increasing pressure and begin the process of lithification...

 deepens away from a marginal flexure, and the accompanying isochronous

Isochronous

Isochronous : From Greek iso, equal + chronos, time. It literally means regularly, or at equal time intervals. In general English language, it refers to something that occurs at a regular interval, of the same duration; as opposed to synchronous which refers to more than one thing happening at the...

 strata typically thicken basinward. By isolating the isochronous packages one-by-one, these can be "peeled off" or backstripped - and the lower bounding surface rotated upward to a datum. By successively backstripping isochrons, the basin's deepening history can be plotted in reverse, leading to clues as to its tectonic or isostatic origin. A more complete analysis uses decompaction of the remaining sequence following each stage of the back-stripping. This takes into account the amount of compaction

Compaction (geology)

Compaction refers to the process by which a sediment progressively loses its porosity due to the effects of loading. This forms part of the process of lithification. When a layer of sediment is originally deposited, it contains an open framework of particles with the pore space being usually...

caused by the loading of the later layers and allows a better estimation of the depositional thickness of the remaining layers and the variation of water depth with time.