In this chapter, I discuss in situ stress fields at a wide variety of scales – from global patterns of tectonic stress (with a brief discussion of the sources of large-scale tectonic stress) to examples of normal, strike-slip and reverse faulting stress states in different sedimentary basins around the world. The purpose of this review is to (i) illustrate the robustness of the stress measurement techniques discussed in Chapters 6–8, (ii) emphasize the fact that sedimentary basins are, in fact, found in normal, strike-slip and reverse faulting environments (as discussed in Chapter 1) and (iii) demonstrate that critically stressed faults are found in many sedimentary basins such that stress magnitudes are often found to be consistent with those predicted on the basis of frictional faulting theory (as discussed near the end of Chapter 4).

In this chapter I also review empirical methods used for stress magnitude estimation at depth. Specifically, I provide an overview of some of the techniques being used for estimating the magnitude of the minimum principal stress in normal faulting environments (such as the Gulf of Mexico) for cases where direct measurements of the least principal stress from extended leak-off tests and mini-fracs are not available. I discuss in detail one particular model, the bilateral constraint, which has been widely used for stress estimation at depth using values of Poisson's ratio from geophysical logs.