Transport and depositional processes generate a wide variety of

sedimentary rocks, each characterized by distinctive textural and

structural properties. Sedimentary texture refers to the features of
sedimentary rocks that arise from the size, shape, and orientation
of individual sediment grains. Geologists have long assumed that
the texture of sedimentary rocks reflects the nature of transport
and depositional processes and that characterization of texture can
aid in interpreting ancient environmental settings and boundary
conditions. An extensive literature has thus been published dealing
with various aspects of sediment texture, particularly methods of
measuring and expressing grain size and shape and interpretation
of grain size and shape data. The textures of siliciclastic
sedimentary rocks are produced primarily by physical processes of
sedimentation and are considered to encompass grain size, shape
(form, roundness, and surface texture), and fabric (grain
orientation and grainto-grain relations). The interrelationship of
these primary textural properties controls other derived, textural
properties such as bulk density, porosity, and permeability. The
textures of some nonsiliciclastic sedimentary rocks such as certain
limestones and evaporites are also generated partly or wholly by
physical transport processes. The texture of others is principally
caused by chemical or biochemical sedimentation processes.
Extensive recrystallization or other diagenetic changes may
destroy the original textures of nonsiliciclastic sedimentary rocks
and produce crystalline textural fabrics that are largely of
secondary origin. Obviously, the textural features of chemically or
biochemically formed sedimentary rocks, and of rocks with strong
diagenetic fabrics, have quite different genetic significance from
those of unaltered siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. Whereas the
term “texture” applies mainly to the properties of individual
sediment grains, sedimentary structures, such as cross-bedding
and ripple marks, are features formed from aggregates of grains.
These structures are generated by a variety of sedimentary
processes, including fluid flow, sediment gravity flow, softsediment
deformation, and biogenic activity. Because sedimentary structures
reflect environmental conditions that prevailed at or very shortly
after the time of deposition, they are of special interest to
geologists as a tool for interpreting ancient depositional
environments. We can use sedimentary structures to help evaluate
such aspects of ancient sedimentary environments as sediment
transport mechanisms, paleocurrent flow directions, relative water
depths, and relative current velocities. Some sedimentary
structures are also used to identify the tops and bottoms of beds
and thus to determine if sedimentary successions are in
depositional stratigraphic order or have been overturned by
tectonic forces. Sedimentary structures are particularly abundant
in coarse siliciclastic sedimentary rocks that originate through
traction transport or turbidity current transport. They occur also in
nonsiliciclastic sedimentary rocks such as limestones and
evaporites