Chapter 5. Depositional Environments and Tectonic Settings

Addis Ababa Science and Technology University
College of Applied Sciences

Department of Geology
SEDIMENTARY PETROLOGY (Geol 20 51)

Chapter 5. Depositional Environments and Tectonic Settings
Prepared By Dr. Samuel Getnet

July, 2023
Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS AND TECTONIC SETTINGS
ü OUTLINE
ü Introduction to environmental deposition and interpretation
ü Continental environments
ü Marginal-marine environments
ü Marine environments

INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEPOSITION AND INTERPRETATION
ü DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
ü A sedimentary environment is the place where sediment is deposited and
encompasses the physical, chemical and biological conditions that exist .
ü Determines the nature of the sediments that accumulate (grain size, grain shape, etc.)
ü A sedimentary environment is a geographic location characterized by a particular
combinations.
ü Environmental conditions include; the kind and amount of water (ocean, lake, river,
arid land), the topography (lowland, mountain, coastal plain, shallow ocean, deep
ocean), and the biological activity

Why are depositional environments important?
§ Reconstructing Earth History: By analysing a sedimentary rock, a geologist can
deduce what was happening on earth at the place and time the sediment was
originally being deposited.
ü From examining the layers of sedimentary rock from the area and determining their
depositional environments.
ü Because sedimentary rocks are stratified in age sequence, as summarized in
the principles of relative geologic age, layers of sedimentary rock act as a record of how
that area was changing, physically and biologically, over the extent of geologic time
spanned by the sedimentary rock layers.
ü Reconstructing depositional environments enables geologists to observe climates of the
past, life forms of the past, and geography of the past -- the location of mountains,
basins, large rivers, and bays of the ocean.

Contd’
ü Understanding Earth Processes: Sediments are deposited in many environments on the
earth's surface, some of which humans have little familiarity with, such as deep ocean
environments.
ü Eg. Sediments have been deposited in the past in environments that do not exist in the
present, such as an atmosphere with no free oxygen, or an environment disturbed
catastrophically by a gigantic meteorite impact.
ü By reconstructing depositional environments of certain sediments deposited along the
coast of the Pacific Northwest, geologists concluded that great subduction
earthquakes and tsunamis created by the earthquakes, were the driving forces of the
depositional environment of those sedimentary deposits.
ü Geologists use analyses of depositional environments to help locate, inside the earth,
sources of oil, coal, natural gas, deposits of valuable metals/minerals/rocks, and
aquifers, which are useable sources of groundwater.
Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador 5

Cont'd…
ü Sedimentary environments may be affected or determined by climate as well as
tectonics.
ü For example, a desert environment implies an arid climate and a glacial environment a cold climate.
ü Sedimentary environments are often grouped by their locations on the continents,
near shorelines, or in the oceans.
ü Types of sedimentary environments:
ü Continental
ü Alluvial Fans
ü Fluvial (river)
ü Lakes (Lacustrine)
ü Glacial
ü Wind (eolian)

Cont'd…
ü Marine
– Shallow (to about 200 meters)
– Organic reefs
– Deep (seaward of continental shelves)
ü Transitional (shoreline)
– Tidal flats
– Beaches
– Barrier islands
– Lagoons
– Deltas

Figure. Classification of Major Depositional Environments
Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador 8

Cont'd…

CONTINENTAL ENVIRONMENTS
ü Sedimentary environments on continents are diverse, reflecting the wide range in
temperature and rainfall on the surface of the land.
ü These environments are built around rivers, deserts, lakes and glaciers.
ü Alluvial Fans: are fan-shaped deposits of gravel, sand, and mud that accumulate in dry
basins at the bases of mountain ranges.
üRequire high relief and an adjacent low-lying area for collection of sediment.
üGenerally occur in areas of active tectonism where high gradient stream crosses into an
open valley and flow becomes less constrained.
üSediments on alluvial fans are typically poorly sorted and include abundant gravel-size
detritus.
üCommonly associated with faults

Cont'd…

Cont'd…
ü On the basis of depositional process, alluvial fans can be divided into debris-
flow- dominated fans and stream-flow- dominated fans.
ü Type 1 fans (debris-flow dominated)
ü Debris flow dominated fans occur in areas with a ready source of mud (i.e., areas with exposed fine-
grained sedimentary or volcanic sections).
ü Debris flow deposits are characteristically poorly sorted and lacking in sedimentary structures.
ü Show interbedding of fine and coarse material that reflects the extreme ranges in flood magnitudes on
these fans.
ü Type 2 fans (stream-flow dominated)
ü Tend to form in areas of perennial flow

Cont'd…
ü After deposition by debris-flow or stream-flow processes occurs, subsequent surficial
reworking can take place by:
ü Discharge from rainfall or snowmelt, eolian (wind) activity, and
ü Bioturbation by plants and animals.
ü Debris flow and sheet flood
ü Figure. Debris flow and sheet flood

Fan Evolution
ü Early stages of a fan dominated by rock avalanche and rock-slide deposits.
ü Result from very high depositional slope angles characteristic of "mature" talus or
colluvial cones.
ü Stage 2 fans are dominated by coarse gravelly debris flows (DF-dominated) or
sheetfloods (sheetflood dominated)
ü Result from lower depositional slope and large drainage basin
ü Stage 3 fans contain cobbly, pebbly, and sandy debris flows
ü Depositional slope continues to decrease
ü Drainage basin size continues to increase

Cont'd…
Distinguishing Characteristics of Alluvial Fans
ü Alluvial fans are cone-shaped to arcuate in plan view, with
network of branching distributary channels.
ü The long profile, from fanhead to fantoe, is commonly concave
upward; the greatest slope occurs at the fan apex and
decreases down the fan.
ü The transverse or cross-fan profile is generally convex upward.
ü Alluvial fan sediments are dominated by gravelly deposits,
which typically show down-fan decease in grain size and bed
thickness and an increase in sediment sorting.
ü Debris-flow-dominated fans are characterized by lobes of poorly sorted,
coarse sediment, commonly with a muddy matrix.
ü Stream-flow sediments constitute more sheetlike deposits of gravel, sand,
and silt that may be moderately well sorted, cross-bedded, laminated, or
nearly structureless.
ü Eolian (wind) environments: include sand seas of deserts, where sand
dunes are built and transported by wind, areas where windblown dust
accumulates.
ü Large areas of the desert environment may indeed be carpeted by
windblown, or eolian, sand.
ü Such areas that cover more than about 125 km2 are called sand seas or
ergs; smaller areas are called dune fields

Cont'd…
§ Aeolian Environments:
üAreas of windblown sand near
beaches or in arid, desert
environments.
üLarge areas of sand dunes are
known as ergs.
üDesert and dunes provide a
special sandy environment

Fluvial (River) Environments
ü Are river channels, river bars and adjacent flood plains.
ü An alluvial environment encompasses a river channel, the borders of the channel, and
the flat valley floor on either sides of the channel that is covered by water when the
river floods.
ü Because rivers are ever present on the continents, alluvial deposits are widespread.
ü Organisms are abundant in the muddy flood deposits and are responsible for organic
sediments.
ü Deposits of rivers and associated environment
ü Widespread in sedimentary rock record
ü Morphological components:
ü Valleys
ü Channels
ü Floodplains

Cont'd…

Lakes (Lacustrine)
ü Are bodies of non-marine water, including freshwater lakes on continental lowlands
and saline lakes in isolated basins.
ü A lake environment is controlled by the relatively small waves and moderate currents
of inland bodies of fresh or saline water.
ü Fresh water lakes may be the sites of chemical sedimentation of organic matter and
carbonates.
ü Saline lakes such as those found in deserts evaporate and precipitate a variety of
evaporite minerals such as halite.
ü Open lakes have an outflow (i.e. a river)
ü Sediments dominated by terrigenous particles and organic matter

Cont'd…
ü Closed lakes have no outflow
ü Solutes are not carried out of the basin
ü Alkalinity can build up such that carbonates and evaporites can precipitate.
ü A lake can alternate between open and closed with tectonic or hydrologic changes.
ü Deposits in open lakes come mainly from rivers but may also be deposited by wind, ice-
rafting, and other processes.
ü Sedimentation in closed lake systems consists of evaporite minerals, carbonate muds,
sands, and silts.
ü Lacustrine deposits are often rich in organic matter

Glacial Environments
ü Are the areas where sediment is deposited by glaciers.
ü A glacial environment is controlled by the dynamics of moving mass of ice and is
characterized by a cold climate.
ü Most obvious are the margins of ice, where sediment carried by the glacier is dropped
as the ice melts.
ü Other sub-environments of a glacie are lakes and melt water streams.
ü Large masses of ice on land that show evidence of being in motion or of once having
moved.

Cont'd…
ü Two types: Valley Glaciers, Continental Glaciers
ü Environmental Setting
ü It is divided into the following zones:
ü (1) The basal or subglacial zone, influenced by contact with the bed
ü (2) The supraglacial zone, which is the upper surface of the glacier,
ü (3) The ice-contact zone around the margin of the glacier, and
ü (4) The englacial zone within the glacier interior.
ü The glacial environment may range in size from very small to very large.
ü Valley glaciers are relatively small ice masses confined within valley walls of a
mountain.
ü Piedmont glaciers are larger masses or sheets of ice formed at the base of a mountain
front where mountain glaciers have debouched from several valleys and coalesced.
ü Ice sheets, or continental glaciers, are huge sheets of ice that spread over large
continental areas or plateaus
Cont'd…
§ Deposition:
ü "Drift" - material of glacial origin
ü Till: deposited directly by ice
ü Outwash: deposited by glacial melt
water
ü Loess: deposited by wind
ü Glaciolacustrine: deposited in glacial
lakes
ü Glaciomarine: deposited in the sea
by/close to ice
ü Erratic: large boulder in till

Cont'd…
ü Glaciers leave deposits of eroded material called moraines.
ü Moraines are given different names depending on their location relative to the
glacier.
ü Moraines consist of a mixture of boulder to silt sized material.
ü Internal movement of ice continues to carry the rock load along and supply rock
debris to the melting snout of the glacier.
ü This process causes a ridge of unsorted sediment, called an end moraine or terminal
moraine, to accumulate in front of the glacier.
ü If the Lateral moraines, or marginal moraines, can accumulate from concentrations
of debris carried along the edges of the glacier where ice is in contact with the valley
wall.
ü Medial moraines may form where the lateral moraines of two glaciers join

ü If the glacier retreats in pulses, it leaves a succession of end moraines, called
recessional moraines.

MARGINAL -MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL
ü Marginal-marine setting lies along the boundary between the continental and the
marine depositional reams.
ü It is a narrow zone dominated by river, wave, and tidal processes.
ü A wide variety of sediment types-including conglomerates,
ü sandstones, shales, carbonates, and evaporates- can accumulate in these various
marginal-marine environments.
ü Marginal marine successions include a range of environments, each deposited at or
near sea level
ü Very sensitive to changes in relative sea level
ü The depositional environments are;
– Beaches
– Tidal flats
– Barrier islands
– Lagoons
– Deltas
Cont'd…
§ Beaches are the most recognizable
transitional environments.
ü Beaches form where wave energy
washes silt and clay away, leaving
larger sand particles behind.
ü Silt and clay may then be deposited in
other low energy transitional
environments such as tidal flats or in
deep marine environments

ü Behind the beach area of
the sand spit lies another
transitional environment,
A Tidal Flat

Cont'd…
ü Beach and barrier-island complexes are best
developed on wave- dominated coasts
where tidal range is small to moderate.
ü Coasts are classified on the basis of tidal
range into three groups:
ü Microtidal (0-2 m tidal range)
ü Mesotidal (2-4 m tidal range)
ü Macrotidal (˃4 m tidal range)
ü Figure showing types of coastline with

respect to tidal range, grouped into wave
dominated, tide-dominated, and mixed
types.

Cont'd…
ü Hayes (1975) has shown that barrier-island and associated environments occur
preferentially along microtidal coasts, where they are well developed and nearly
continuous.
ü They are less characteristic of mesatidal coasts and, when present, are typically short
or stunted, with tidal inlets common.
ü Barriers are generally absent on macrotidal coasts; the extreme tidal range causes
wave energy to be dispersed and dissipated over too great a width of shore zone to
effectively form barriers.
ü Shorelines are controlled by the relative importance of sediment supply, tides, and
wind-driven currents, and can thus be divided into three extreme end-members: river-
dominated, tide-dominated, and wave-dominated environments

Cont'd
ü Organisms in these systems provide little sediment.
ü The high productivity of clastic shorelines may allow large numbers of organisms to
live, but their remains are greatly diluted by the clastic sediment.
ü when the sediment supply is cut off for some time, or when already-deposited fine
sediment is winnowed, can shell beds accumulate.
ü River-dominated coastlines: contain birdfoot-type deltas where distributaries build out
unconstrained by tide and wave removal of sediments, forming delta platform, delta-
slope, and prodelta deposits

Delta Platform Deposits
üConsist of linear cross- bedded channel sands, separated by shales,
silts, and fine-graded and rippled sands of freshwater to brackish
interdistributary bays.
üThese pass seaward into delta-slope silts and then into marine
prodelta clays.
üRiver-dominated delta section should generally coarsen upwards

Cont'd
Birdfoot deltas: (a) the Mississippi delta from space; (b) distributary channel
environments (from Anstey & Chase 1979).

Cont'd…
ü Tide-dominated coastlines contain
estuaries with linear sand bodies passing
seaward into shore-parallel sand and muds
without a marked break in slope.
ü If net deposition is greater than erosion,
then a prograding estuary (tide-dominated
delta) forms, in which overlapping cross-
bedded sand-bar deposits gradually overlie
prodelta silts and clays.
ü These, in turn, may bTide-dominated
deltase overlain by prograding tidal-flat
deposits
ü Figure. Tide-dominated Deltas

Wave-Dominated Coastlines
ü Occur where waves rework river-supplied sediment, forming classic Nile type deltas,
and open or barrier coasts (depending on the slope).
ü Nile-type deltas consist of beach and barrier fronts separating prodelta and delta plain
areas.
ü Barrier coasts have beaches and barriers with shoreline- parallel belts of reworked
sands cut by tidal channels, passing shoreward into spillover sands, lagoonal silts,
clays, and marshes, and passing seaward into shallow marine cross-bedded and graded
sands (often storm- deposited), silts, and clays.
ü Barrier complexes form on abandoned deltas as the subsiding delta platform is
reworked by waves

ü Cont'd
Wave-dominated deltas:
(a) The niger delta from space (courtesy NASA);
(b) The Niger delta (from Anstey & Chase 1979)

Cont'd…
ü In prograding deltas, as in most other environments, the boundaries between the
different sedimentary units are not time-lines.
ü At any one time, nearshore sediments pass seaward into deeper water sediments.
ü The depositional surfaces are also usually at small angles to the horizontal, except in
some coarse-grained systems such as arid alluvial fans.

MARIN ENVIRONMENT
ü The marine environment is part of the ocean lying seaward of the zone dominated by
the shoreline processes.
ü Water depth in the marine realm ranges from a few meters to more than 10,000 m.
ü Marine environments encompass a wide variety of subenvironments, ranging from
those affected by the salinity of the water, such as evaporites, to physically deposited
sediments affected by currents.
ü Because depth of water determines the kind of currents, marine environments are
usually subdivided on the basis of water depth.
ü Alternatively, they can be classified on the basis of distance from land.

Continental Shelves
ü Slope gently from the shoreline to depths of about 100 -250 m, which normally marks
the shelf/slope break.
ü The dominant processes are tidal and wind-driven currents, including storm waves
and storm-induced underflows, but glaciers can extend across the shelves at times.
ü Tide-dominated shelves consist of various types and
ü sizes of cross-bedded sand bodies (depending on the tides), which pass laterally into
interbedded cross-bedded sands, silts, and clays (Dalrymple 1992).
ü S o m e d e e p e r, t i d e - d o m i n a t e d s h e l f s a n d b o d i e s r e s e m b l e
desert dunes: both are formed by deep, wide fluid flows

Cont'd…
§ Deep-sea deposits cover over 60% of the earth, but are little known.
§ Most sediment accumulates at the continental- slope/deep-sea transition as deep-sea
fans, which grade out into deep-sea plain condensed pelagic sediments.
ü 1. Deep-Sea Fans: form when turbid suspensions slide down continental slopes, and
decelerate on reaching the deep-sea floor.
– Here they form submarine fans much larger than the fans found on land.
– The largest fans are those found in front of the deltas of large rivers such as the Amazon and the Indus,
which consist of mature sediments
– Smaller fans draining active orogens such as the Andes consist of less mature sediments and occur in
front of smaller rivers.

Cont'd…
ü 2. Deep-Sea (abyssal) plains: lie between continental slopes and oceanic ridge and arc
systems.
– Sediments are generally thin and composed of the finest and furthest-transported
clastic sediment, as well as true pelagic sediments.
– Sections of deep-sea plain deposits consist of varying proportions of fine-grained
distal turbidites, volcanic ashes, mudstones, radiolarian cherts, and foraminiferal and
other chalks and limestones

REEFS
ü Are notoriously difficult to define because they mean different things to different people.
ü To Mariners, the term means any rock structures at or just below the sea surface that
are a hazard to navigation.
ü To Biologists, the term means rich biological communities that form rigid wave-
resistant structures in shallow tropical seas.
ü To Geologists, the term means a massive three-dimensional carbonate structure that
is surrounded by bedded carbonates and that may have distinctive fossils.

Cont'd…
ü The neutral term "bioherm" can be used for any lens-shaped carbonate mound.
ü Large barrier reefs may build out seaward over deeper water sediments, and may
isolate marine basins sufficiently that a drop in sea level will allow an evaporitic basin
to form .
ü Carbonate Slopes: may be much steeper than clastic slopes because of the rapid
growth of reefs and early cementation.
ü Mass flows down reef fronts form thick breccias, graded gravels and sands, and thin turbidite sands
interstratified with suspension muds.
ü Deep-sea carbonates: are formed by the accumulation of shells of planktonic
organisms.
ü Recent calcareous plankton have high production rates in warm, low-latitude surface waters, mostly
within 60° of the equator

Cont'd…
ü Siliceous plankton are commoner in cooler surface waters, especially in nutrient-rich
areas such as upwellings.
ü Only siliceous ooze accumulate below the carbonate compensation depth.
ü Deep-sea carbonates accumulate at about 0.01- 0.05 mm/year, which is low compared to
shelf carbonates.
ü Since all deep-sea deposits eventually end up crushed into subduction zones, ancient
deep-sea carbonates are almost entirely confined to orogenic belts.

ü SUMMARY ON DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
ü Sediments accumulate in some environment of deposition or depositional environments
ü These areas receive net deposition
ü Erosion may occur, but deposition dominates
ü Features of these depositional environments are preserved in the rock record
ü Examples:
ü Sediment texture
ü Sedimentary structures (formed by processes in the environment)
ü Fossils of organisms that lived in the environment
ü Ancient environments can be reconstructed from the clues that are preserved in the
sedimentary rocks

ü SUMMARY ON DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS…Figure showing the different types of
depositional environments

Chapter 5. Depositional Environments and Tectonic Settings

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Addis Ababa Science and Technology University

College of Applied Sciences

SEDIMENTARY PETROLOGY (Geol 20 51)

Prepared By Dr. Samuel Getnet

Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

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Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

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Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

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ü Figure showing types of coastline with

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