Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91 – 100

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The dangers of taking mud for granted: Lessons from Lower Old Red
Sandstone dryland river systems of South Wales
V. Paul Wright a,b,⁎, Susan B. Marriott c
a
School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3YE, United Kingdom
b
BG Group, 100 Thames Valley Park Drive, Reading RG6 1PT, United Kingdom
c
School of Geography and Environmental Management, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom

Abstract

Mudrocks are a prominent feature of many ancient dryland successions but they are not always a product of the settling out
of suspension load. From studies of the late Silurian–early Devonian Old Red Sandstone mudrocks of South Wales it has been
shown that many were not overbank sediments deposited from suspension on floodplains, but were emplaced as sand- and silt-
sized aggregates transported as bed load and deposited in sinuous channels and as braid-bar complexes on multi-stage
floodplains in dryland river systems. Using the Old Red Sandstone examples criteria are provided for the recognition of similar
deposits in the sedimentary record. One important aspect of these mudrocks is that they can represent multiple recycling events
and can constitute condensed deposits that may be characteristic of closed alluvial basins with periodically limited sediment
supply.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Mud aggregates; Dryland rivers; Old Red Sandstone; Vertisols

1. Introduction silt-grade aggregates of mud-sized particles, that through

The formation of secondary mud-grade matrices,
through compaction of mud clasts or authigenic mineral
formation is well established in studies of siliciclastic
sediments. However, such effects are generally restricted
in terms of the proportion of mud added to the succes-
sion. In certain continental settings, mud-grade materials
were not deposited directly as suspension settle-out muds
but were originally deposited as traction-load sand- and
later compaction, were restructured into a mudstone tex-
ture. Such mudstones are an important component of
some ancient dryland deposits. The aim of this paper is to
provide criteria for recognition of such deposits in some
continental clastic successions and to draw upon our
experience of examples from the Siluro–Devonian Old
Red Sandstone of South Wales to highlight their impor-
tance in assessing palaeoenvironments.
2. Clay aggregates in Quaternary soils

Sand and silt-sized, clay-silt grade aggregates (“clay

⁎ Corresponding author. School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary
Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3YE, United Kingdom.
E-mail address: wrightvp@cardiff.ac.uk (V.P. Wright).
0037-0738/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2006.03.028
pellets”) are a major feature of some modern fluvial
systems (Rust and Nanson, 1989; Maroulis and Nanson,
1996; Gibling et al., 1998). These examples come from
92 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100
the flood-dominated drylands of central Australia, but
similar pelleted sediments are known from non-dry-
land systems (e.g. the Red River, Manitoba, Canada,
(Brooks, 2003)). They have also been recognized from
clay and mud ‘grains’ held together by salts in aeolian
deposits (Rust and Nanson, 1989). In the case of central
Australia the pellets are produced in floodplain soils
with a high smectite content, typically associated with
Vertisol-type soils (although see Retallack, 2005,
p.673). Such soils develop a fine, blocky to pelleted
(crumb) structure in the upper parts of their profiles
(McGarry, 1996; Mermut et al., 1996). Just a few wet-
ting and drying cycles are enough to form small aggre-
gates (Maroulis and Nanson, 1996), which have low
densities and are readily entrained during flood events.
Following transport, these sand- and silt-grade aggre-
gates are deposited and reworked as in-channel bed
forms such as extensive braid bars. They also accumu-
late on lateral accretionary bars or benches associated
with anastomosing rivers (Gibling et al., 1998). The
integrity of the pellets is quickly lost even during shal-
low burial due to compaction (Rust and Nanson, 1989;
Fig. 1. Lower Old Red Sandstone outcrops in South Wales, UK. Localities from which examples are shown in Figs. 4–8, FWW – Freshwater West;
FWE – Freshwater East; LL – Llansteffan.
Maroulis and Nanson, 1996, their fig. 12). However,
Rust and Nanson (1989) noted that these aggregates
may be preserved if isolated in a framework of quartz
grains that would not undergo much compaction and
also recognized macroscale bedforms that indicated
transport of the aggregates as bed load. Retallack (2005)
provides a general discussion about the preservation of
clay aggregates.
Despite the poor preservation potential of such ag-
gregates in Holocene floodplain sediments, their former
presence has been recorded or inferred from a variety of
ancient deposits (Rust and Nanson, 1989; Ìkes, 1993;
Talbot et al., 1994; Gierlowski-Kordesch and Rust,
1994; Marriott and Wright, 1996; Gierlowski-Kordesch,
1998; Tanner, 2000; Gierlowski-Kordesch and Gibling,
2002; Marriott and Wright, 2004; Müller et al., 2004;
Marriott et al., 2004). Müller et al. (2004) have recorded
well-preserved mud aggregate pellets, both in Vertisol
profiles and as reworked material, from the Upper Tri-
assic dryland alluvial successions of the Lunde Forma-
tion of the northern North Sea. Retallack (2005) has
questioned the interpretations of some of these
 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100
Table 1
Stratigraphy of the Lower Old Red Sandstone of south west Wales, UK
examples, favouring an origin for the aggregates for the
Triassic examples documented by Talbot et al. (1994)
and Müller et al. (2004) not from Vertisols but from
reworked kandic soils (deeply weathered tropical soils);
this seems to ignore the fact that both examples come
from arid dryland successions with prominent Vertisol
palaeosols, and in the case of the latter, the aggregates
are found in situ in Vertisol profiles.
3. Significance of mudrocks formed as aggregated
bed load deposits
The occurrence of tabular mud-grade sediment bodies
in alluvial successions is usually interpreted as the pro-
duct of suspension load fallout in overbank (floodplain)
settings. Interbeds of mud-grade material in channel de-
posits are commonly inferred to be slack water deposits
93
indicating an irregular flow regime. In both cases, deposi-
tion of mud aggregates transported as bed load, followed
by compaction, could produce the same results.
One consequence is that it is possible to create non-
stratified mudrocks that, by virtue of lacking stratifica-
tion, resemble pedogenically-destratified suspension
deposits. Müller et al. (2004) have named this effect
“pseudo-pedodestratification”. In these cases, bed load
deposits could be mistaken for weakly developed palaeo-
sols. Such materials are pedoliths, that is redeposited soils
(Retallack, 2005), although it would be difficult to es-
tablish that all such aggregates were formed in soil pro-
files. Bed load aggregate deposits can be further affected
by pedogenesis leading to sediment recycling (Marriott
and Wright, 1996), whereby aggregates are removed from
the upper horizons of soils, transported and deposited as
bed load on a floodplain, to be incorporated into a new soil
94 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100
profile. This type of recycling will be an especially
significant process in systems starved of sediment such as
the Channel Country of central Australia, where flood-
plain aggradation rates are as low as 0.04 mm/year
(Gibling et al., 1998). Sediment starvation also limits the
input of coarser grade sediment, resulting in relatively thin
packages of multi-cycle mudrocks. This means that the
mudrock is not the product of a single phase of floodplain
aggradation but hides a long and complex history of
recycling. It represents a type of condensed facies that
may be characteristic of basin-fills of drylands with low
relief hinterlands, especially inland drainage basins where
fine sediments are effectively trapped in the basin (e.g. the
Channel Country cratonic basin, Australia (Gibling et al.,
1998)) and continental rift settings (e.g. the Hartford
Basin, USA (Gierlowski-Kordesch and Gibling, 2002)).
Fluvial systems with long-term aggradation rates as
low as those of the Channel Country should produce
floodplain lithosomes with well-developed soils and
palaeosols. This is a consequence of the fact that the
degree of pedogenesis a unit of floodplain sediment
undergoes is the inverse of the deposition rate (Marriott
and Wright, 1993). However, the recycling processes
create unstable surfaces preventing major soil develop-
ment. Many modern and ancient dryland successions
contain calcic and petrocalcic soils and palaeosols (cali-
che or calcrete) (e.g. Machette, 1985; Blodgett, 1988;
Fig. 2. Two main associations of mudrocks in the Lower Old Red Sandstone that contain petrographic evidence of former mud aggregates.
Müller et al., 2004). The time-dependent stages of
development found in these units have been used to
develop simple estimates of sedimentation rates (Leeder,
1975; Wright and Marriott, 1996). The absence or weak
development of these pedogenic features would nor-
mally be used to indicate relatively short residence times
in the solum and hence high sedimentation rates. It
would be critical in such cases to establish whether the
lack of strongly developed features represents a short
period of soil development, or whether recycling has
occurred. The ability to recognize former aggregate
deposits would be essential for this purpose.
The availability of mud aggregates for entrainment
and transport as bed load in alluvial systems may result
in a high concentration of mud layers in fluvial channel
sandstones, and hence permeability baffles or barriers to
later fluid flow.
4. Lower Old Red Sandstone mudrocks
The thick, Upper Silurian (Pridolian)–Lower Devonian
(Emsian) Lower Old Red Sandstone successions of South
Wales (Fig. 1. Table 1), which are up to 4.5 km thick, are
composed mainly of alluvial sediments. These comprise of
80% mudrocks, with relatively thin sandbodies and tuff
beds that act as regionally correlative markers (Allen and
Williams, 1982). Earlier studies had revealed not only the
 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100
presence of well-developed Vertisol palaeosols (Allen,
1986), but also that reworking of the floodplains was a
relatively common process, resulting in distinctive
intraformational (calcrete-clast) conglomerates (Allen
and Williams, 1979; Marriott and Wright, 2004). Marriott
and Wright (1993, in press) were able to document
detailed histories that indicate polyphase development of
floodplains in the dryland systems of the Old Red
Sandstone. Using evidence from soils that had been
buried and later exhumed and reactivated, they demon-
strated that, for selected stratigraphic units, the sequences
built up from multiple episodes of aggradation and
erosion. With abundant Vertisol palaeosols and evidence,
from the presence of intraformational conglomerates and
reactivated soils, of periods of soil erosion, the discovery
of deposits composed largely of clay-silt aggregates was
in some ways to be expected (Marriott and Wright, 1996).
The initial examples discovered represented sinuous
channels but subsequent studies (Marriott and Wright,
2004; Marriott et al., 2004) revealed that mudrocks
originating as aggregated sediments were also deposited
as sheet-like bodies, probably as braid-bar complexes
during major floods. Their studies showed that a signifi-
cant proportion of the mudrock volume in the Lower
Old Red Sandstone was likely to have been deposited as
bed load, mud aggregates. Additional reworking of
floodplain surface sediments (i.e. pedogenic aggregates)
Fig. 3. Features suggesting the role of aggregates in mudrock deposition based on the Lower Old Red Sandstone, South Wales.
95
occurs during dust storms in the dry season in the
Channel Country (M. Gibling 2002, personal commu-
nication) and elsewhere in the Australian region (Hesse
and McTainsh, 2003) and may have been an important
process of redistribution in the Lower Old Red
Sandstone. The importance of bed load transport of
aggregates in the Siluro–Devonian mudrocks is testa-
ment to the ability of the pellets to survive at least some
transport, but might also reflect the likely absence of a
vegetative cover at this time favouring the presence of a
readily erodible active surface soil layer (Marriott and
Wright, in press).
The types of associations of mudrocks deposited as
aggregated sediments are summarized in Fig. 2.
5. Criteria for the recognition of former mud
aggregated deposits
Rust and Nanson (1989), Gierlowski-Kordesch
(1998) and Gierlowski-Kordesch and Gibling (2002)
have provided criteria by which mud aggregates may be
recognized at the microscale and have given valuable
examples from fluvial successions of Carboniferous,
Triassic and Jurassic age. In addition, it has been observed
that aggregates may be preserved by early cementation,
particularly by calcite. Ripple forms in mudrocks contain-
ing early calcite cement were found in the Jurassic East
96 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100
Fig. 4. Massive red mudrock with minor pedogenic features from the
Freshwater West Formation, Freshwater West (Fig. 1; Table 1).
Hammer for scale is 400 mm.
Berlin and Shuttle Meadow Formations (Gierlowski-
Kordesch and Rust, 1994; Gierlowski-Kordesch, 1998).
Müller et al. (2004), from the Upper Triassic Lunde
Fig. 5. Channelised contact between highly pedified mudrock (lower part) and low-angle cross-bedded mudrock (also subsequently pedified) from
the Red Marls Group (correlated with Freshwater West Formation) Llansteffan (Fig. 1; Table 1). Walking stick for scale is 500 mm.
Formation, show clear associations between aggregates
and calcite crystallaria giving a boxwork texture.
Criteria for distinguishing well-preserved in situ
pedogenic aggregates from reworked ones that are
visible in cut cores have been presented by Müller et al.
(2004). Here we focus on criteria developed from stud-
ies of Old Red Sandstone units where the aggregates are
not clearly seen by the naked eye in the field. Con-
clusive evidence that the mudrocks were deposited as
aggregates comes from petrographic examination but
there are macroscopic criteria that aid in identifying
likely units for further investigation. None of the macro-
scopic criteria are by themselves diagnostic of former
mud aggregate deposition. These criteria (shown dia-
grammatically in Fig. 3) are:
• Lack of lamination—fine scale lamination, including
cross-lamination or fine grading is missing from
these mudrocks. This could be the result of com-
paction or pedogenic processes such as self-mulching
that is regarded as a significant process affecting
Vertisols, but in these mudrocks vertic features are
not ubiquitous (Fig. 4). Bioturbation could be an-
other possible explanation but although burrows are
common in many Old Red Sandstone mudrocks, they
are usually found in units that also display some
remanent lamination (Marriott and Wright, 2004) and
are rarely seen in the mudrocks that provide petro-
graphic evidence of former aggregates.
• Contacts—many mudrocks displaying petrographic
evidence of former aggregates have erosive, even
channelised contacts with underlying lithologies
 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100 97

Fig. 6. Low-angled layers of mudrock and intraformational conglomerate containing calcrete clasts and mud matrix from the Red Marls Group
(correlated with Freshwater West Formation) Llansteffan (Fig. 1; Table 1).

(Fig. 5), suggesting that they may not have been
emplaced simply as suspension load sediments. This
is not to imply that suspension load material could
not be deposited on an erosive surface, but that the
consistent occurrence of mudrocks above erosive
surfaces may point to the mudrock having been em-
placed by currents with the hydraulic capacity to
erode fine-grained sediments.
• Associations—in some cases these mudrocks imme-
diately overlie intraformational conglomerates com-
posed of calcrete clasts (Fig. 6), with no evidence of
other sediment types or grading. Whereas some larger
(gravel-grade) calcrete clasts are present within these
mudrocks, they are relatively uncommon. The general
restriction of larger clasts to the bases of the mudrocks
is not characteristic of cohesive debris flow deposits
(debrites), but is more likely to have occurred if the
calcrete conglomerates represent the bases of deposits
of sand-sized mud aggregates. Another common
association is that of structureless mudrocks overlying
truncated, pedified mudrocks displaying characteris-
tics of Vertisols. A discontinuous layer of calcrete

Fig. 7. Thin mudrock layers in heterolithic unit from the Moor Cliffs Formation, Freshwater East (Fig. 1; Table 1). Coarse sand and conglomerate
layers have mud matrix that is likely to have been formed from sand-sized mud aggregates.
98 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100
clasts may be present at the contact but it is common to
see these mudrocks, with petrographic evidence of
aggregates, simply capping a sharply truncated
Vertisol palaeosol. By analogy with modern Vertisols
it is likely that mud aggregates would have been
released during the erosion of the upper parts of the
profile. A further common association is that of thin
(b 0.2 m) mudrock layers within inclined heterolithic
deposits (Fig. 7). The mudrocks are typically inter-
bedded with calcrete-clast conglomerates or siliciclas-
tic sandstones. Again these do not appear to be
deposits of waning flows but have sharp contacts with
underlying coarser layers, and occur frequently near
the bases of lateral accretion units suggesting that they
are more likely to have been emplaced as bed load. On
petrographic examination, the former aggregated
nature of these mudrocks is revealed.
• Stratification—some mudrocks display a range of
stratification types (Ìkes, 1993; Marriott and Wright,
1996). One common feature is the presence of con-
centrations of coarse sand- to fine gravel-sized calcrete
clasts as isolated lenses or defining trough-sets within
metre-thick mudrocks. These units probably represent
point bars of small sinuous channels (Marriott and
Wright, 1996). The presence of these types of bed form
structures suggests that the mudrocks were not
emplaced from debris flows. Another characteristic of
these lenses or trough-sets (Fig. 8) is that the calcrete
clasts may be clast-supported or matrix-supported. The
explanation for the latter is that the mud-grade matrix
was deposited as sand-grade mud aggregates, later
compacted back into a secondary mud matrix.
Fig. 8. Mudrock overlying intraformational calcrete clast conglomerate lenses showing low-angle cross bedding from the Moor Cliffs Formation,
Freshwater East (Fig. 1; Table 1).
• Petrographic evidence—thin section examination
reveals that far from exhibiting either fine lamination
or pedogenic microstructures, the mudrocks have a
poorly-sorted, chaotic microstructure with sand-sized
grains of quartz, calcrete fragments, irregularly
shaped mm-sized mud clasts and sand-sized rounded
pellets of clay, clay-silt and silt. In some cases there is
a pedogenic overprint on these textures, such as
calcite crystallaria, but most do not display such
features. The pellets vary from being sharply defined
to grading into a finely mottled groundmass, within
which it is difficult to impossible to see pellet out-
lines. Pellet forms are commonly more clearly seen in
patches where calcrete clasts and quartz grains create
a local framework. Rust and Nanson (1989) have also
noted that in the floodplain sediments of the Channel
Country the aggregates are more likely to be pre-
served when isolated between other grains. Recently
Retallack (2005) has provided a classification of
pedolith types. In this classification reworked clayey
soils are termed sepic pedoliths but many of the
aggregates from the Old Red Sandstone do not show
clear soil sepic or argillan microfabrics, and this
probably reflects their origins from weakly devel-
oped upper soil horizons.
6. Conclusions
Mud-grade sediments transported as sand-sized
aggregates can be a significant sediment type in dryland
deposystems, particularly where the fine-grained sedi-
ments are smectite-rich and wetting and drying cycles
 V.P. Wright, S.B. Marriott / Sedimentary Geology 195 (2007) 91–100
favour Vertisol formation and fine, granular-surface soil
structures. The growing number of examples of ancient
sediments containing significant volumes of redeposited
pellet aggregates supports such a view. The correct
differentiation of floodplain versus channel deposits
requires the accurate identification of mudrocks depos-
ited by suspension versus those deposited from bed
load, and criteria for such differentiation at outcrop
developed from analysis of Old Red Sandstone alluvial
deposits in South Wales are presented. Some mudrocks
may be the products of multiple cycles of deposition,
pedogenesis, erosion, transportation and redeposition,
and are effectively condensed horizons yet, by virtue of
representing unstable land surfaces, do not show evi-
dence of prolonged pedogenesis.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Elizabeth Gierlowski-
Kordesch and Peter Friend for their helpful comments
on an earlier draft of this paper. Paul Revell drew the
diagrams. We thank the reviewers, Steve Driese and
Greg Retallack for their insightful comments. Fieldwork
by SBM was funded by a grant from the Faculty of the
Built Environment, UWE, Bristol.
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