STRUKTUR SEDIMEN

• Sedimentary structures are features found within the sedimentary section, and/or on, and/or
between, bedding plane surfaces subdividing that section

• Related to scale and hierarchy of features they occur in, whether in sediments that have
confined (as in a channel) or unconfined settings (as on a shelf), & associated but similar
sized structures

• Sedimentary structures provide critical versus general clues to depositional setting

• Sedimentary structures occur at very different scales, from less than a mm (thin section) to
100’s–1000’s of meters (large outcrops); most attention is traditionally focused on the
bedform-scale

• Microforms (e.g., ripples)

• Mesoforms (e.g., dunes)

• Macroforms (e.g., bars)

• Absence of lamination in mud is due to flocculation (clumping of clays before they settle) or
to secondary bioturbation.

• Laminated sands are the results of rapid deposition, often by a single hydrodynamic event.

• Lack of lamination may be the result of bioturbation

BEDDING PLANES

• Beds are enclosed or bounded by sharply defined upper & lower surfaces or bedding planes.

• These surfaces are easiest physical features of sedimentary rocks to identify in outcrop

• Subdivide successions of sedimentary rock into beds

• Used to determine relative order & timing of accumulation of sediments forming beds

• Character of bedding planes, be they eroded, cemented, bored, bioturbated, or depositional

surfaces used to aid in interpretation of sedimentary rocks.

• Most probably formed by erosion of unconsolidated sediment collected at sediment surface.

Weight of sediment, just beneath sediment surface, causes sediment to dewater, compact &
become cohesive

• Less cohesive sediment of surface truncated & expose surface of firmer cohesive sediment
below at bedding plane surface in response to:

• Storm waves

• Fast flowing currents of water (say in tidal or fluvial channels)

• Turbid flow of a density current

WHAT DETERMINES CHARACTER & HIERARCHIES OF SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURE

• Inter-relationships of physical processes active in depositional/and or erosional setting with:

 • Grain size of the sediments

• Movement of water and/or wind

• Current and/or waves

• Modification of depositional fabric by burrowing and/or other organisms at & post

deposition

• Post depositional events including:

• Hydrations/dehydration

• Compaction

• Chemical signals

SEDIMENTARY RESPONSE CONFINED OR CHANNELED FLOW

• Unique processes

• Flow is parallel to channel

• Bounded by both sides

• Minor change in flow velocity

• Sediment responses

• Little change in grain size

• Basal/erosional contacts

• Accretion: Lateral, vertical, downstream & upstream

• No gross change in sedimentary structures

• Geometries

• Ribbons

• Lens

• Sheets

UNCONFINED FLOW-NOT IN CHANNEL

• Unique Processes

• Flow is in all directions

• No lateral boundaries, only upper and lower boundaries

• Velocity changes: high to low

• Sediment responses

• Decrease in grain size: Fining outward (coarse to fine)

• Erosional/sharp/gradational contacts
 • Accretion: Downstream, upstream and vertical

• Decrease in sedimentary structures away from source

• Geometries

• Sheets

• Thin in direction of flow

WHY USE SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURE?

• Sedimentary structures are used to identify depositional setting of sedimentary rocks in

conjunction with:

• Lithology

• Bedding geometries

• Subdividing surfaces

• Fauna

• Depositional setting of sedimentary rocks used to assess & predict the fabric of the rocks at
that locality

• Extrapolate their distribution along & perpendicular to strike, or vertically within that
geologic section

PRIMARY SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURE

Formed under influence of same hydrodynamic and/or aerodynamic conditions as entrainment,

transport and deposition of sediment particles. Resolve:

• Which way is up?

• Orientation of process that dispersed sediment?

• What process was responsible for transportation and deposition of sediment?

• Plane Bedding

• Bedforms generated by Unidirectional Currents

• Bedforms generated by Multidirectional flow

• Currents

• Waves

• Graded & Imbricate Bedding

• Bedding Plane Structures

PLANAR BEDS

• Often “planar laminae” or “planar laminations”

• Separated by variations in color, composition, grain size, and bedding plane surfaces parallel
to bedding.

• Products of product of sediment supply, sediment composition, etc., and either:

• Deposition from high flow velocity, e.g.: swash zone of a beach

• Settling from standing body of water with very low flow velocity, etc. e.g.; lake
varves, or pelagic rhythms!

Lamar Limestone - Permian Basin W.

Texas

BEDFORMS SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURE

Unidirectional Current Ripples

Bedforms -Unidirectional Current Ripples -increasing Flow Velocities

Flume studies have shown that their is a predictable sequence of bedforms that depend on velocity,
grain size, depth of flow.

In Sand that is finer than 0.7 mm, the first feature to form is ripples

Typically their spacing is 10 to 20 cm or less, and their height is less than a few centimeters.

As flow velocity increase the ripples enlarge until they form sand waves, and finally dunes, which
have spacing from 0.5 to 10m or more and heights of tens of cm to a meter or more

In deeper currents, greater flow velocity is required to produce the large bedforms.

With increasing flow velocity, dunes are destroyed and the turbulent flow which was out of phase
turns into sheetlike flow in phase with the bedform. It forms plane beds.

At higher velocities plane beds are replaced by antidunes of up to 5m spacing. Low dip angles of 10
degrees or less, eventually chutes and pool.
CROSS STRATIFICATION

• Cross lamination (small-scale cross stratification) is produced by ripples

• Cross bedding (large-scale cross stratification) is produced by dunes

• Cross-stratified deposits can only be preserved when a bedform is not entirely eroded by the
subsequent bedform (i.e., sediment input > sediment output)

• Straight-crested bedforms lead to planar cross stratification; sinuous or linguoid bedforms

produce trough cross stratification

PLANAR STRATIFICATION

• Planar lamination (or planar bedding) is formed under both lower-stage and upper-stage
flow conditions

• Planar stratification can easily be confused with planar cross stratification, depending on the
orientation of a section (strike sections!)

BEDFORMS & ASYMMETRIC CURRENT RIPPLE

BEDFORMS – RIPPLE TERMINOLOGY BEDFORMS & BACK FLOW CURRENT RIPPLE

ALLEN’S CLASSIFICATION OF RIPPLES

Based on plan view shape, with increasing complexity tied to shallower water & higher velocities.

• Straight

• Sinuous

• Catenary

• Linguoid

• Lunate
BEDFORMS & TIDAL CURRENT RIPPLES

LENTICULAR, WAVY AND FLASER BEDDING

• Lenticular beds are small lenses of sand in a predominant matrix of muddy beds (Sand in
mud matrix )

• Wavy beds are subequal mixtures of small lenses of sand and muddy beds (sand & mud
50/50)

• Flaser beds are predominantly stacks of small lenses of sand in less than 50% muddy matrix

(sand predominates)
BEDFORMS AND WIND CURRENT RIPPLE

ASYMETRIC WIND CLIMBING RIPPLES EROSION TO LEE

GENERATION OF WAVE RIPPLES

BEDFORMS WAVE RIPPLE HIERARCHY

BEDFORMS- ASYMMETRIC WAVE RIPPLES

Asymmetric wave ripples with wave rippled cross bedding. Note irregular bounding surface & well
developed asymmetrical shapes on this surface

Asymmetric wave ripples with wave rippled cross bedding. Note irregular bounding
surface & well developed asymmetrical shapes on this surface