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Sedimentary Environments
Sedimentary Environments
Sedimentary Facies
Depositional Environments
• Clastic vs. Carbonate Depositional Systems
• Short and Long
Depositional Systems
Facies
The sum of the characteristics of a sedimentary unit resulting from
some particular set of physical, chemical and biological parameters
that work to produce a unit with specific textural, structural, and
compositional properties
(after Boggs, 2001)
- Generally interpretive
- Not specific to a rock, but to a predicted set of characteristics
associated with some depositional environment
- Sometimes used differently
- E.g., To describe a rock unit in an outcrop
- sandstone facies
FACIES
“The nature of the material deposited anywhere will be
determined by the physical, chemical or biological
processes which have occurred during the formation,
transport and deposition of sediment. Those processes also
define the environment of deposition”
– Nichols, 2001.
FACIES
• Lithofacies
– Based on lithology
• Biofacies
– Based on fossil assemblage
• Ichnofacies
– Based on trace fossil assemblage
Facies Types
• Lithofacies
– characteristics of a rock which are the products of PHYSICAL and
CHEMICAL processes
– coarsening upward, fining upward
• Biofacies
– observations are based on fauna and flora present
– Ichnofacies focuses on trace fossils
– Examples
• gray limestone rock = lithofacies
• echinoid and crinoids = biofacies
• burrows and tracks = ichnofacies
Environment of Deposition
• Sedimentological analyses allow us to determine the
environment in which a sequence of sediments or rocks
accumulated
– Texture
– Composition/ Classification
– Petrographic analyses (e.g., evaluate diagenesis)
– Identify sedimentary structures
– Compare results to modern environments
• Also simulate conditions in laboratory experiments (Hjülstom’s
curve)
Depositional Environments and Sedimentary
Facies
Depositional Environments
• Areas of the Earth’s surface where distinct processes generate
specific geological (sedimentary) products
– Physical
Biological
– Chemical
Paleocurrents and Paleocurrent
Indicator Analysis
• Paleocurrent indicators are oriented
sedimentary structures interpreted to have
been deposited by ancient flows
– Cross-beds slip faces,
– pebble imbrication,
– parting lineation,
– tool marks and groove casts, and
– ripple crest orientation
Unidirectional Paleocurrent
Indicators
Cobble Imbrication
Bidirectional Paleocurrent
Indicators
Rose Diagram
Sedimentary Environments
Sedimentary (litho) Facies and
(litho) Facies Analysis
• Sedimentary (litho) facies
– Lithostratigraphic Units (time independent)
– Defined by sum total of (relevant) rock
properties
– Reflects processes during genesis and may
include
• Lithology
• Sedimentary Structures
• Fossils
• Bedding style and geometry (on various scales)
• Paleo-sediment transport indicators
Mud supported
Parallel bedded
Cross bedded
Facies Analysis and Walther’s Law
• “It is a basic statement of far reaching significance that only those
facies and depositional environments can be super imposed
primarily that can be observed beside each other at the present time”
Facies Analysis and Walther’s Law
• Gradational (vertical) transitions from one facies to another indicate original
adjacency and genetic relationship during formation.
• Sharp/erosional (vertical) contacts between facies provides NO evidence of
contemporaneous genetic relationship of depositional environments
How to make a stratigraphic column
• Look at the rocks
This may seem obvious, but it is important before you begin to get
a general sense of the rocks in front of you. It will make it easier to
make a description of the rocks later if you get a good overview
first.
• Look for changes in rock type
If the rocks in one part of the outcrop appear very different, then it
is possible that they should be their own "unit". Dividing the rock
outcrop into units is based on changes either in fossils, color, rock
type, and other factors, or all of these factors combined.
• Measure the section
Once you have determined different units, you may then measure
the thicknesses of these units. (Geologists are generally not
particularly interested in the length of the rocks, only the widths.)
• Start describing!
Now it's time to make specific observations about the rock you are
looking at. What fossils do you see? What is the color? What kind
of rock is it (sandstone, shale, limestone, or something else)?
Vertical Lithologs
Graphic Sedimentary Log
A sedimentary log
is a graphical
method for
representing a
series of beds of
sediments or
sedimentary rocks
Marine
•Shallow water marine environment –
processes due to waves and tidal currents, creates shelves and slopes, lagoons.
Common sediments are carbonates (in tropical climates) or sand, silt, and clay
(elsewhere)
• Upper shoreface – Portion of the seafloor that is shallow enough to be agitated
by everyday wave action
• Lower shoreface – Portion of the seafloor, and the sedimentary depositional
environment, that lies below the everyday wave base
•Deep water marine environment – Flat area on the deep ocean floor (abyssal plains)
caused by ocean currents. Common sediments are clay, carbonate mud, silica mud.
•Reef – A shoal of rock, coral or other sufficiently coherent material, lying beneath the
surface of water caused by waves and tidal currents. Also creates adjacent basins.
Common sediments are carbonates.
Others
•Evaporite – Water-soluble mineral deposit formed by evaporation from an aqueous
solution
•Volcanic; Tsunami – Sedimentary unit deposited by a tsunami
Braided system
Meandering system
Why rivers change their planform?
River Ganga @ Kanpur
Schumm and Khan, 1971
Singh, 1996; Srivastava et al., 2003
Ganga Alluvial Fan
Shukla et al., 2001
Distinctive and Common Sedimentary
Facies Associations
• Vertical successions principally identified by lithology, associations and
vertical arrangement of sedimentary structures
– indicative of particular sedimentary depositional environments
Aeolian Environment
• Sorting
• Sediment maturity
• Colour of the sediment
• Absence of channel lag
• Geometry of sand body
• Dips of the bounding surfaces
Late Pleistocene and Holocene dune activity and wind regimes in the Western
Sahara Desert of Mauritania