SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS

A sedimentary environment is an area of the earth's surface where sediment is deposited. It

can be distinguished from other areas on the basis of its physical, chemical, and biological
characteristics

TYPES OF SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS:

There are three main types of sedimentary environments:
1. Continental
2. Marine
3. Transitional

CONTINENTAL ENVIRONMENTS:

Continental environments are those

environments which are present on
the continents and include:
1. Fluvial (Rivers)
2. Lacustrine (Lakes)
3. Paludal (Swamps)
4. Glacial
5. Desert

1. Fluvial (Rivers):
 include braided and meandering river and stream systems. River channels, bars, levees, and
floodplains are parts (or subenvironments) of the fluvial environment. Channel deposits consist
of coarse, rounded gravel, and sand. Bars are made of sand or gravel. Levees are made of fine
sand or silt. Floodplains are covered by silt and clay

Fluvial Depositional Systems:

– dominant conduit from regions of sediment production
(mountains) to sediment storage
(oceans, basins)

– characterized by channel pattern

– meandering
– braided
– anastomosing
– characterized by sediment load
– bedload
– suspended load
– mixed load

– unidirectional sediment dispersal

A: Meandering streams:
 Have a single channel with a sinuous pattern.
 The most common pattern on floodplains.
 Meandering channels form where streams are
flowing over a
relatively flat landscape with a broad
floodplain.
 Associated facies are levee, floodplain, point
bar, oxbow lake and crevasse splay

Levees:
They are ridges found along the sides of the
stream channel and composed of silt and fine
sand
Floodplain:
It is a plain that subjected to periodic
flooding and composed of fine-grained
materials which are very fertile soil.

Point bar:
It develops where stream flow is locally reduced because of friction and reduced water
depth. The eroded materials from the cut banks at the outside bend; will be deposited as
point bars that lie at inside bend. Point bar composed of cross-bedded sand.

Oxbow lake:
As the channel migrates, parts of it may become abandoned and left behind as oxbow lakes
which made up of fine-grained sand to silt (lake sediments).
Crevasse splay:
The crevasse splay will be formed when an overloaded stream breaks a natural or artificial
levee and deposits sediments on a flood plain. It made up of sands, fining upwards to a mud.

Meandering river fining upward sequence:

Associated facies:

 Channel deposits: scour

and lag deposit.
 Levees: silt and fine
sands.
 Flood plains: clays and
paleosols.
 Point bar: cross-bedded
sand to gravel.
 Crevasse splay: coarse
to fine sands laterally
grade to silt and clay
beds.
 Typical Gamma Ray responses in fluvial settings

 Log response:
 Note that the log signatures from the different facies in the meandering system vary
according to factors such as the sediment composition and the precise depositiona
sequences.
 For example, the point bars in Fig. 1 have differing log responses in the upstream bar
(which may be truncated), downstream bar and chute-topped point bar. Where
multiple channel fills occur the log patterns become even
more complex.
 The characteristic bell-shaped curve for channels.
 Two point-bar sequences are in evidence. Both are surrounded by overbank flood-
plain shale. Note how the gamma ray curve shows the abrupt change from shale to
sand at the base of each channel, as well as the fining-upward, bell-shaped curve as
point-bar sand grades into flood-plain shale at the top of each channel sequence.
 The dipmeter log for such a section will be a bit complex, but will show three main
depositional surfaces.

2. Braided streams:
� Have an interlacing network of channels and the water flows in a braided pattern.
� They are relatively uncommon.
Braided streams having highly variable water discharge and easily
eroded banks, sediment gets deposited to form bars and islands that are
exposed during periods of low discharge.

� They are characterized by:-

1. Multiple channels.
2. Abundant sand and gravel bars.
3. Longitudinal bar
4. Transverse bar
5. Granular sediments.
6. Absence of fines.
7. No flood plains
� Braided stream system divided into three subsystems:
• Collecting system (branches)
consists of a network of tributaries
in the head-water region, collects
and funnels water and
sediment to the main stream.
• Transporting system (trunk) in
which water and sediment move
from the collecting area toward the
ocean. Erosion and
deposition also occur in a river's
transporting system.
• Dispersing system (roots) consists
of a network of distributaries
at the mouth of a river (delta),
where sediment and water are
dispersed into an ocean, a lake, or a
dry basin.

� Braided river sequence:

Lacustrine (Lakes):
� A lake is a body of fresh or salt water of considerable size that is surrounded by land. It is
larger and deeper than a pond.
� Continental lakes have a great variation in size (small or large), depth (deep or shallow)
and salinity (fresh or saline).
� The lakes sediments may be terrigenous, carbonates and/or evaporites.
� The most common sedimentary structures in lakes are mud cracks and symmetrical wave
ripples.
� The major factors control water dynamics in lakes includes:
1- Climate: control water chemistry, shoreline fluctuations, organic productivity and water
temperature.
2- Water depth: control lake stratification, current effectiveness.
3- Nature and amount of clastic sediments and solute sediments from the lake
Playa Lake:
� A shallow intermittent lake in an
arid or semiarid region formed in the
wet season but drying in summer.
� Playa sediments are finegrained
clastics and evaporates

Paludal (Swamps):
A swamp is a wetland characterized by:
1. Sufficient water supply with poor
drainage.
2. Plant life is dominated by trees or
shrubs.
3. Mineral soils and coal deposits.
4. The water of a swamp may be fresh
water, brackish water or
seawater.
5. Marsh is a type of swamps, in which
plant life consists largely of
grasses.

Glacial:
� A glacier is a large, slow moving river of ice.
� Formed from compacted layers of snow, which slowly deforms and flows in response to
gravity.
� Sediment deposited directly from glacier is called till or tillite (diamictites) if lithified.
� They have extensive lateral distribution, several tens of ms thick, lack of stratification,
much matrix which supports clasts.
� Loess is a homogeneous, very well sorted, silt-dominated unstratified sediment that is
deposited from suspension; it is commonly associated with ice sheets that produce large
quantities of source materials (rock flour).
Deserts:
� Deserts are regions of intense aridity where the average rate of evaporation exceeds the
average rate of precipitation.
� Deserts occur in both hot and cold climate areas of the world.
� Fossils in deserts are absent apart from local vertebrate bones and footprints.
� Aeolian processes are the main processes in desert environments and responsible for the
formation of sand sheet and sand dunes.
� Apart from areas of wind-blown sand; alluvial fans, ephemeral streams, salt lakes and
playas occur in a desert regions.
� Frosted sand grains together with moderately good sorting of the sand-sized grains and
large-scale cross-stratification are diagnostic of aeolian processes. Many of these grains are
red through hematite pigmentation.

• Sand dunes
They are the most common aeolian
landforms; their geometry and resulting
sedimentary structures depend
primarily on sediment supply and
prevailing wind direction.

• Eolian sand sheets

They develop when sediment supply is
limited and are characterized by planar
stratification; vegetation can
contribute to dune formation
under such circumstances.

� Desert dune sands are

characterized by a grain size of
fine to coarse sand (0.1-1.00 mm),
good sorting and a negative skew.

� Characterized by large-scale,
high angle cross bedding.

� The interdune areas are filled with lag deposits and sabkha.

� Geomorphologically, sand
dunes include
1. Barchan dunes.
2. Transverse dunes.
3. Linear (longitudinal) dunes.
4. Star dunes.
Alluvial fans:
� It is a fan shaped deposits generally form at the margin of an uplift area, such as a
mountain range front.
� Streams in narrow valley (Canyon), carrying recently eroded material, and spread out
their sediment load (alluvium) onto the plain at the base of the upland where the slope
suddenly flattens.
� They most commonly form under semi-arid and glacial climate conditions.
� The deposits are generally texturally and compositionally immature.
� The sediments become finer grained away from the apex of the fan.
� Fans generally do not form as a single body, but are built up over time as a complex of
coalescing and overlapping deposits.
� Coalescence of alluvial fans forms Bajada.
� They consist of stream-flow and debris-flow or mud-flow deposits.
 MARINE ENVIRONMENTS

Marine environments are those environments in seas or oceans which may be shallow or
deep environments. The shallow marine environments include reefs and continental shelf
meanwhile the deep marine environments are continental slope, continental rise and
abyssal plain.

Reefs:
� They are mound-like, wave resistant
structures made up of calcareous skeletons of
organisms such as corals, bryozoa, etc.
� Reefs are growing in the photic zone of
warm, clear, shallow seas.
� Ancient reefs buried within stratigraphic
sections are of considerable interest to
geologists because they provide
paleoenvironmental information about the
location in Earth's history.
� In addition, reef structures within a sequence
of sedimentary rocks provide adiscontinuity
which may serve as a trap for oil or ore
deposits.

The three principal reef types are:

1. Fringing reef: a reef that is directly attached to a shore or borders it with an intervening
shallow channel or lagoon.
2. Barrier reef: a reef separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep lagoon.
3. Atoll: is an annular reef enclosing a lagoon.
The Continental Shelf (Continental Platform):
� The continental shelf is the flooded edge of the continent and lies between shoreline and
continental slope.
� The continental shelf is relatively flat (slope < 0.1o), shallow (less than 200 m), and may be
up to hundreds of miles wide.
� Continental shelves are exposed to waves, tides, and currents.
� The shelf area is commonly subdivided (toward deep water) into the inner continental
shelf (neiritic zone), mid continental shelf, and outer continental shelf, each with their
specific geomorphology and marine biology.
� The continental shelves are commonly covered by terrigenous sediments, in addition to
non-clastic sediments such as carbonates, phosphates.
� Terrigenous sediments usually become increasingly fine with distance from the shoreline
whereas, sand is limited to shallow, wave-agitated waters, while silt and clays are deposited
in quieter, deep water far offshore.
� The carbonates of the continental shelf are rich in algae, larger foraminfera etc..
� These shelf sediments accumulate at an average rate of 30 cm/1000
years, this rate is much faster than that for deep-sea pelagic sediments.
The continental slope and continental rise:
� They are located seaward of the continental shelf and may reach a depth of 4000 m.
� The continental slope is the steep (5- 25o) part at the edge of the continent.
� The continental slope passes seaward into the continental rise, which has a more gradual
slope.
� The continental rise is the site of deposition of thick accumulations of sediment, much of
which is in submarine fans, deposited by turbidity currents.
� Submarine fans are essentially turbidites dumps most typically at the mouths of the
submarine canyons that feed them.

The abyssal plain:

� It is flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor.
� It covered by very fine-grained sediment, consisting primarily of clays and the shells of
microscopic organisms (such as
foraminifera, radiolarians, and
diatoms).
� The carbonate rocks of the deep
marine water (above the CCD) are
formed mainly by the accumulation of
tests such as planktonic foraminifera.
� The Carbonate Compensation
Depth (CCD) is the depth below which
no carbonate sediments can
accumulate.
� Below CCD, the deep marine
environments are cold, with high
PCo2, due to the decay of the few
organisms that may be buried there.
� Therefore, this environment is not suitable for the direct precipitation of carbonates from
seawater. As a matter of fact, below the depth of about 5000 m, no carbonate sediments can
accumulate.
 TRANSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
Transitional environments are those environments at or near the transition between the land and
sea. These environments include delta, beach,
barrier islands, lagoons and tidal flats.

Delta
� A delta forms where a river transporting
significant quantities of sediment enters a
receiving basin such as ocean or other body
of water.
� Name from the Greek letter ‘Δ’, from the
shape of the Nile Delta.
Delta is subdivided into the delta plain, delta front and prodelta:

• The delta plain comprises a flat area dominated by alluvial deposition. The resulting vertical
deposits include alluvial channel fills, overbank muds and the fine-grained sediment infill of lakes.
• The delta front is located at the distal edge of the delta plain; sediments are deposited in mouth
bars as the rivers emerge into the sea.
• The prodelta is most distal part of the delta whereas the finest grained sediments are deposited.
Controls on delta environments and facies.

Delta Classification (Galloway,1975)

Beach:
� Beach is a sedimentary environment that extends from the landward of the high tide to
the point offshore (low tide) where water depth reaches 10m. Seaward from there is the
continental shelf.
� The actual width of the beach is highly variable.
� Beach deposits are usually formed of loose particles of rock such as gravel, sand.
� The particles of which the beach is formed can sometimes instead have biological origins,
such as shell fragments or coralline algae debris.
� In beach sands, fine-grained sands are removed by winnowing.
� The constant washing back and forth in wash zone causes all of the sand grains to be
extremely well rounded and well sorted.
� The dominant mineral on the beach is quartz.
� If beach sands are lithified, they would be converted into quartz arenite.
Lagoon:
� It is a body of comparatively shallow salt or
brackish water.
� Lagoon is enclosed body of water behind a
barrier reef or barrier islands and connected to the
open sea by tidal inlets or enclosed by an atoll reef.
� Lagoonal sediments are evaporites, silt and clay.

Tidal Flat:
� A broad flat area, very close to sea level that is
flooded and drained by tidal channels with each
rise and fall of the tide.
� It consists of unconsolidated sediments of
laminated or rippled clay, silt and fine sand.
� Mud flats are common around the lagoon.
� If conditions are favorable, mud flat shows
intense burrowing and algae.