The varved marine anoxic sediment in the deep centre of the Santa Barbara Basin off California has been studied extensively by sedimentologists, micropalaeontologists and geochemists during the past four decades. The Santa Barbara Basin is the only basin in the California Borderland Province that exhibits laminations for most of the Holocene. These sediments are essential to further our understanding of climate in that they provide a rare oceanic record of climate change with high resolution. In this overview of the complex and multidisciplinary Santa Barbara Basin sediment research, we briefly introduce the reader to the various analytical approaches and present a comprehensive collection of literature references.