Whole-rock, inorganic, geochemical data have previously been used to aid characterization and stratigraphic correlation of fossil-poor clastic sedimentary deposits, although this approach has not yet been calibrated by testing chemostratigraphic correlations against physical stratigraphic correlations from outcrop. Chemical data from a well-exposed siliciclastic succession in a Tortonian (late Miocene) submarine slope channel system in the Tabernas Basin of southern Spain were generated using X-ray fluorescence supplemented by X-ray diffraction, SEM analysis, and light microscopy. Amongst the > 60 elements measured, nearly a quarter of them have proved to be useful or reliable for geochemically based correlation at the tested scales (∼ 10 m, ∼ 50 m, ∼ 100 m). These elements are SiO