SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES

Lamination
• Finer scale plane
bedding (less than 1
cm thick).
• It can be form by
alteration of light and
dark layers such as
glacial varves.
• Lamination in mud is
usually the result of
slow steady
deposition.
A: Homogeneous and B: heterogeneous bedding
Heterogeneous Bedding
A: Grading bedding, B: cross-beddings, c: planar-wedge shaped bedding, b: trough
Shaped bedding, a; planar-tabular shaped bedding
Graded bedding
Sedimentary Structures
Graded Beds
Graded bedding
Graded bedding
Graded bedding and load casts
Graded bedding
Heterogeneous Bedding
A: Grading bedding, B: cross-beddings, c: planar-wedge shaped bedding, b: trough
Shaped bedding, a; planar-tabular shaped bedding
Cross bedding
Sand dune movement
Sand Dunes
Planar-Tabular cross-bedding
Planar-Tabular cross-bedding
Planar-Tabular
cross-bedding
Wedge shaped cross bedding
Trough type cross-bedding
Trough type cross-bedding
Rippple marks
Symetric ripple-mark
Asymetric Rippple mark
Recent ripple-mark
Recent ripple-mark
Asymetric ripple-mark
Asymetric ripple-mark (Jurassic)
Ripple-marks on bedding surface
Cross-cutting ripple-marks
Bedding plane structures;
A: mudcracks
B: mudcraks cross-section
C: solt crystals
D: rain drop marks
E and F: filled mudcraks indicating bedding bottom
Mudcracks
Recent mudcracks
Mudcracks
Mudcracks
Mudcracks (Jurassic)
Raindrop Imprints
Raindrop Imprints
Position of bivalvia (shells). Concave shells are stable so they show
bedding Position. Cavity of the shells is filled by calcite crystals.
Foot prints
Dinosaur tracks, Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill, Connecticut
Dinosour foot print, Connecticut,USA
Birds foot prints
Bird foot prints (Cretaceous)
Load cast

Coarse material
(sand)

Fine material (clay)

Load casts and flame structures
Up

Down
Load Casts
Load casts
Turbidites (bottom view)
Turbidites (bottom view)
Flute cats (sole marks)
Kaval yapısı oyukları
Flute cats
Flute casts. Overturned strata
Kaval yapısı
Drag marks (tool marks)
Traces that reflect animal behavior.
A = crawling traces (Sürünme izleri )
B = resting traces (Dinlenme izleri )
C = dwelling traces (Yuva yapıları)
D = grazing traces (Gezinme İzleri)
E = feeding traces (Yemlenme yapıları)
Burrow structure
Burrows in Triassic rocks, Deep River Basin, North Carolina
Burrows of animals moving through the sediment prior
to its lithification into rock are common at this outcrop.
Stromatolites

• Sharks Bay, Australia

• Cyanobacteria grow upward toward the surface
Sedimentary Structures
Geopetal Structures

normal
symmetric ripple marks
included fragments
cross-bedding
graded bedding
mud cracks
bed surface marks
scour marks
reverse

fossils
Types of Unconformities

• Three types of surfaces can be unconformities:

▫ An angular unconformity is an erosional surface on
tilted or folded strata over which younger rocks were
deposited
▫ A nonconformity is an erosional surface cut into
metamorphic or intrusive rocks and covered by sedimentary
rocks
▫ A disconformity is a surface separating younger from
older rocks, both of which are parallel to one another
Types of Unconformities

• Unconformities of regional extent may change from

one type to another
• They may not represent the same amount of geologic
time everywhere
Nonkonformite
Nonconformity
Angular unconformity
Angular unconformity
Angular unconformity
Disconformity
Sedimentary Facies

• Both intertonging and lateral gradation indicate

simultaneous deposition in adjacent environments

• A sedimentary facies is a body of sediment with

distinctive physical, chemical and biological attributes
deposited side-by-side with other sediments in different
environments
Interpretation of Sedimentary Rocks
Grain Size

Lecture 7
IV
Sedimentary Facies
• On a continental shelf, sand may accumulate in the
high-energy nearshore environment

– while mud and carbonate deposition takes place at the same

time in offshore low-energy environments
 Walther’s Law
• Johannes Walther (1860-1937) noticed that the same
facies he found laterally were also present in a vertical
sequence, now called Walther’s Law

• holds that
– the facies seen in a
conformable vertical sequence
will also replace one another
laterally
– Walther’s law applies to marine
transgressions and
regressions
Marine Transgressions

• A marine transgression occurs when sea level rises

with respect to the land
• During a marine transgression,
▫ the shoreline migrates landward
▫ the environments paralleling the shoreline migrate landward
as the sea progressively covers more and more of a continent
Marine Transgressions

• Each laterally adjacent depositional environment

produces a sedimentary facies

• During a transgression, the facies forming offshore

become superposed upon facies deposited in nearshore
environments
Marine Transgression
 Marine Transgression
• The rocks of each facies become younger in a
landward direction during a marine transgression

• One body of rock with the same attributes (a facies) was deposited
gradually at different times in different places so it is time transgressive
– meaning the ages vary from place to place
Cambrian Deposits of the
Grand Canyon Region
Tapeats Sandstone is overlain by Bright Angel
Shale, an offshore deposit. Bright Angel Shale is
overlain by Muav Limestone, deposited farther
from land.
These rocks form a transgressive sequence.
 Marine Regression

• During a marine regression, sea level falls with

respect to the continent
– the environments
paralleling the shoreline
migrate seaward
Marine Regression

• A marine regression
– is the opposite of a marine transgression
• It yields a vertical sequence with nearshore facies
overlying offshore facie sand rock units become
younger in the seaward direction
Facies change during regressions, too
Transgressive succession Regressive succession

Limestone Sandstone

Shale Siltstone

Siltstone Shale

Sandstone Limestone
Global sea level change since Cambrian
Focuse to last 100 Ma
Sea level change
 107
Relative
Change Causes of Sea Level
Change

Eustatic
Change
Facies changes
Transgresif istif
Regresif istif
Transgression
Regression
Transgresif istifi takip eden regresif istif
Transsgresif seri
Fasiyes değişimleri