Sedimentary environments

Sedimentary environments I
 Clastic Sedimentary environment

Dominated by actions of
waves, tides and currents

Primary influenced by
currents
Chemical and biochemical sedimentary
environment
 Sedimentary structures
Bedding or stratification: paralel layers of grains of different size or kind.

What’s up:
Cross bedding: sets of bedded material deposited at angles as large as 35o.
Graded bedding: coarse grains at base and progressively finer grains towards the
top.
Ripples: small dunes of sand or silt whose long dimension is at right angles with the
current.

Bioturbation: remnants of burrows and tunnels by clams worms etc

Cross bedding I

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 Cross bedding II
Grains are deposited on the lee
side of the dune
Ripples
A-Symmetrical ripples
Modern rippled sand
Ripple Marks
Making ripples
Bioturbation
Continental slope
 Turbidity currents
•Suspension of water, sand, and mud that moves downslope (often very
rapidly) due to its greater density than that of the surrounding water (often
triggered by earthquakes)
•Speed of turbidity currents first appreciated in 1920 — breaking of phone lines
in the Atlantic; also gave indication of distance traveled by a single deposit
•These turbidity currents can result in Tsunamis
Location of origin of turbidity currents
 Graded bedding I

Scale can be meters to centimeters

Graded bedding II
River sediment
Diagenetic processes I
Sediments are buried compacted and
lithified at shallow depths in the
Earth’s crust….

…or subducted where they are

subjected to high pressure and
temperature

Diagenesis: process- physical and

chemical- that changes sediments in
sedimentary rocks
 Diagenetic process II Compaction squeezes out the water

Precipitation: addition of
Compaction squeezes
new minerals cements the
out the water
sediment particles
 Turbidity currents
•Suspension of water, sand, and mud that moves downslope (often very
rapidly) due to its greater density than that of the surrounding water (often
triggered by earthquakes)
•Speed of turbidity currents first appreciated in 1920 — breaking of phone lines
in the Atlantic; also gave indication of distance traveled by a single deposit
•These turbidity currents can result in Tsunamis
Location of origin of turbidity currents
 Graded bedding I

Scale can be meters to centimeters

Graded bedding II
Laminations < 1cm
River sediment
Diagenetic processes I
Sediments are buried compacted and
lithified at shallow depths in the
Earth’s crust….

…or subducted where they are

subjected to high pressure and
temperature

Diagenesis: process- physical and

chemical- that changes sediments in
sedimentary rocks
 Diagenetic process II Compaction squeezes out the water

Precipitation: addition of
Compaction squeezes
new minerals cements the
out the water
sediment particles