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WHAT IS A SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENT?

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. Before studying ancient sedimentary environments, it is helpful
to consider the types of sedimentary environments present on the earth today.

 CONTINENTAL ENVIRONMENTS

Continental environments are those environments which are present on the continents.

1. Alluvial fans are fan-shaped deposits formed at the base of mountains. Alluvial fans
are most common in arid and semi-arid regions where rainfall is infrequent but torrential,
and erosion is rapid. Alluvial fan sediment is typically coarse, poorly- sorted gravel and
sand.

2. Fluvial environments 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.

3. Lacustrine environments (or lakes) are diverse; they may be large or small, shallow
or deep, and filled with terrigenous, carbonate, or evaporitic sediments. Fine sediment
and organic matter settling in some lakes produced laminated oil shales.

4. Deserts (Aeolian or aolian environments) usually contain vast areas where sand is
deposited in dunes. Dune sands are cross-bedded, well sorted, and well rounded, without
associated gravel or clay
5. Swamps (Paludal environments) Standing water with trees. Coal is deposited.

TRANSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

Transitional environments are those environments at or near the transition between the
land and the sea.

1. Deltas are fan-shaped deposits formed where a river flows into a standing body of
water, such as a lake or sea. Coarser sediment (sand) tends to be deposited near the mouth
of the river; iner sediment is carried seaward and deposited in deeper water. Some well
known deltas include the Mississippi River delta and the Nile River delta.

2. Beaches and barrier islands are shoreline deposits exposed to wave energy and
dominated by sand with a marine fauna. Barrier islands are separated from the mainland
by a lagoon. They are commonly associated with tidal flat deposits
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3. Lagoons are bodies of water on the landward side of barrier islands. They are
protected from the pounding of the ocean waves by the barrier islands, and contain finer
sediment than the beaches (usually silt and mud). Lagoons are also present behind reefs,
or in the center of atolls.

4. Tidal flats border lagoons. They are periodically flooded and drained by tides (usually
twice each day). Tidal flats are areas of low relief, cut by meandering tidal channels.
Laminated or rippled clay, silt, and fine sand (either terrigenous or carbonate) may be
deposited. Intense burrowing is common. Stromatolites may be present if conditions are
appropriate.

MARINE ENVIRONMENTS

Marine environments are those environments in the seas or oceans.

1. Reefs are wave-resistant, mound-like structures made of the calcareous skeletons of

organisms such as corals and certain types of algae. Most modern reefs are in warm,
clear, shallow, tropical seas, between the latitudes of 30oN and 30oS of the equator.
Sunlight is required for reef growth because of the presence of symbiotic algae called
zooxanthellae which live in the tissues of corals. Atolls are ring-like reefs surrounding a
central lagoon (such as Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean).

2. The continental shelf is the flooded edge of the continent. The continental shelf is
relatively flat (slope < 0.1o), shallow (less than 200 m or 600 ft deep), and may be up to
hundreds of miles wide. (The flooding of the edges of the continents occurred when the
glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago.) Continental
shelves are exposed to waves, tides, and currents, and are covered by sand, silt, and mud.

 3. The continental slope and continental rise are located seaward of the continental
shelf. The continental slope is the steep (5- 25o) "dropoff" 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.

4. The abyssal plain is the deep ocean floor. It is basically flat, and is covered by very
fine-grained sediment, consisting primarily of clay and the shells of microscopic
organisms (such as foraminifera, radiolarians, and diatoms).
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WHAT KINDS OF FEATURES HELP US TO IDENTIFY ANCIENT

SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS?

TRANSITIONAL SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS

DELTA BARRIER BEACH LAGOON TIDAL FLAT

Rock Type Sandstone, siltstone, Quartz arenite, coquina Siltstone, shale, limestone, Siltstone, shale,
shale, coal oolitic limestone or gypsum calcilutite, dolostone
or gypsum

Composition Terrigenous Terrigenous or Terrigenous, carbonate, or Terrigenous,

carbonate evaporite carbonate, or
evaporite

Color Brown, black, gray, White to tan Dark gray to black Gray, brown, tan
green, red

Grain Size Clay to sand Sand Clay to silt Clay to silt

(Coarsening upward

Grain Shape --- Rounded to angular --- ---

Sorting Poor Good Poor Variable

Inorganic Cross-bedding, Cross-bedding, Lamination, ripples, cross- Lamination,

Sedimentary graded bedding symmetrical ripples bedding mudcracks, ripples,
Structures cross-bedding

Organic or Trails, burrows Tracks, trails, burrows Trails, burrows Stromatolites, trails,
Biogenic tracks, burrows
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Sedimentary
Structures

Fossils Plant fragments, Marine shells Marine shells Marine shells

shells

MARINE SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS

REEF CONTINENTAL CONTINENTAL SLOPE AND ABYSSAL PLAIN

SHELF RISE

Rock Type Fossiliferous Sandstone, shale, Litharenite, siltstone, and shale Shale, chert,
limestone siltstone, fossiliferous (or limestone) micrite, chalk,
limestone, oolitic diatomite
limestone

Composition Carbonate Terrigenous or Terrigenous or carbonate Terrigenous or

carbonate carbonate

Color Gray to white Gray to brown Gray, green, brown Black, white red

Grain Size Variable, Clay to sand Clay to sand Clay

frameworks, few
to no grains
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Grain Shape --- --- --- ---

Sorting --- Poor to good Poor Good

Inorganic --- Lamination, cross- Graded bedding, cross-bedding, Lamination

Sedimentary bedding lamination, flute marks, tool
Structures marks (turbidites)

Organic or --- Trails, burrows Trails, burrows Trails, burrows

Biogenic
Sedimentary
Structures

Fossils Corals, marine Marine shells Marine shells, rare plant Marine shells
shells fragments (mostly
microscopic)