A sedimentary basin consists of strata of different lithologies deposited in different time intervals. The main data in the burial history are, therefore, the thickness and the lithology of each layer and the time of the horizons separating the layers. A horizon is taken to be a surface in the basin of a particular time, and the precise term is therefore chronohorizon. There is an extensive nomenclature for stratigraphic classification, but here we will not need more terms than horizon and formation. A formation is here simply the layer between two consecutive horizons.

A burial history usually has breaks or gaps in the stratigraphical record, either because of lack of deposition or because of erosion. Such a gap in a sequence of sedimentary rocks is a hiatus, and an erosion process can partly or completely remove several layers. It is often difficult to reconstruct what has been eroded; especially, regional erosion processes make it difficult find places where thickness information is preserved.

The histories of water depth, heat flow and surface temperature complement the burial history. All these elements go into the modeling of a sedimentary basin, and they apply at the boundaries of the basin. The development of the basin is modeled by adding layer on top of layer through the geohistory, eventually with periods of no deposition or periods with erosion. The deposition history gives the geometry and the material properties of the basin by processes on the basin surface. The water depth history, surface temperature history and the heat flow history become boundary conditions for the equations of fluid flow and heat flow.