Ken Bixgorin Depositional Environments - Sedimentary Rocks - sediments (or rocks) and fossils

By way of introduction, the continental environments are mainly siliclastic with few fossils but also
with nonsiliclastic sediments, such as freshwater limestone and evaporites.
1. alluvial fan - poorly sorted with gravel-size detritus, generally at the base of a mountain range, in
sparsely vegetated arid or semiarid at cloudburst or humid regions with rainfall. They may contain
large boulders and blocks. They may be cone-shaped or arc-shaped and branched. Usually coarser
at upper fan to fine at lower fan. Alluvial fans usually lack fossils except plant fragments and rare
vertebrate remains. Sedimentary breccia. Arkose.
2. desert dunes - loose sand and fine sediment, with wind separating sediment finer than 0.05 mm
from coarser, but may transport up to ~2 mm grains (courser may roll and creep); well-sorted and well
rounded sand (separated form loessy silt and gravelly pavement), usually quartz rich and sometimes
gypsum. (Coastal dunes may ooids, skeletal fragments, or other carbonate grains.) Structures may
include laminae, ripples, and cross-strata. Interdunes may be coarse, bimodal, poorly sorted, and
bioturbated by animals and plants. Wet interdunes may contain silts and clays may be trapped, may
contain gastropods, pelecypods, diatoms, and ostracods, may be bioturbated, and may contain
vertebrate footprints. There are also evaporite interdunes. Sheet sands may have bioturbation caused
by insects and plants. Cross-bedded quartz sandstone. Reptile traces.
3. lake - if draining to the center of the basin, may deposit carbonate and evaporites. May contain
shales, evaporite minerals (especially in playas), coal, and iron. May contain varves (with thinner,
clayey, organic layers from winter). May be diatoms and pelecypods, gastropods, calcareous algae,
and ostracods, cyanobacterial stromatolites. Burrowing may have destroyed lamination. Open lakes
may have siliclastic deposits from rivers or windblown, ice-rafted, or volcanic detritus..Where deeper,
expect fine silt and clay. Sedimentary structures may include casts and mudcracks. Sandstones and
conglomerates may be present. Mudstone and limestone.
4. fluvial environment - in areas of high flow, most of the sediment is gravel and sand. Channel
sediments include gravel, waterlogged plant material, and chunks of partly consolidated mud.
Meandering streams usually contain few fossils, and although fine-grained may have root traces.
Arkose, sandstones, mudrocks, coal, and plant fossils. Shale on floodplains.
5. glacial environment - till on land and drift (with dropstones) floating in marine waters, unstratified,
unsorted pebbles, cobbles, and boulders with matrix of sand, silt, and clay. Some pebbles are
rounded, others faceted, striated, or polished. Sands and silts are angular or subangular. Also better
stratified from meltwater sources. Extremely fine rock flour. Fossils as whole shells, marine mollusks,
barnacles attached to pebbles, preserved ornamentation on shells, with forams and diatoms in a
matrix. Any detrital rock except arkose.
6. beach - fine to medium grade well sorted sand; reservoirs for petroleum and natural gas. Most
beaches are made of siliclastic sediments. Some modern beaches on carbonate shelves are made of
carbonate grains, consisting of skeletal fragments, ooids, and pellets. In breaker zones, coarse
sediments saltate and fines suspend and winnow out. Bioturbation is common. Upper shoreface
Skolithos trace is common. Middle shoreface vertical burrows may include Ophomorpha. Lower
shoreface may include shells and mud clasts and suspension-feeder and deposit-feeder traces, such
as Thalassinoides. Coquina, conglomerate, sandstone, and mudstone.
7. delta - contain much of the siliclastic sediment transported to coastal zones; petroleum and natural
gas. Different deltas (fluvial, wave, or tide dominated types) have different sediment sizes. The upper
delta plain is mainly fluvial sands, gravels, and muds, whereas lower delta plains contain sands,
muds, and organic debris. Subaqueous delta plains are partly sand, and possibly gravels but grade to
finer sands and silt. Prograde coarsening upward as sands advance seaward. The sands or mud that
contain marine fauna are bioturbated and may contain root traces. There are no specific fossil taxa
but may show a transition from freshwater to brackish to saltwater. Siltstone, sandstone, shale, and
coal.
8. tidal flat - fine to medium grade ripple-laminated sands; fine sand and mud in midtidal flats. Marshy
and muddy to sandy. Mixed mud and sand with evaporites possible in arid to semiarid regions. Mainly
siliclastic. Oil and gas deposits. Ripples, dessicated and cracked muds unless destroyed by
vegetation. Also carbonate tidal flats with lime muds, sand-sized skeletal fragments, possibly ooids.
Gastropods, pelecypods, crustaceans, polychaete worms, forams, diatoms, stromatolitic blue-green
algae, fecal pellets, bioturbation, and burrows (Skolithos). Plant debris may form peat. Mudrocks,
limestone, and dolostone.
9. barrier island - reservoirs for petroleum and natural gas, back-barrier lagoon and marsh deposits
overlapped by sandy back-barrier sands. Similar to beach environments. Shelly sandstones. Quartz
arenite (1/16 to 2 mm sand), and coquna.
10. shallow marine environment - evaporites, especially gypsum and halite. Skeletal/ooid sand
shoals. Isolated platforms free of clastic sediments. High-magnesian calcite crinoids and echinoids,
low-magnesian calcite coccoliths and forams, and aragonite green algae, gastropods, and recent
corals Where strong waves, sand- and gravel-sized bioclasts, ooids, grapestones (gravel and sand
and skeletal material partially lithified), and hardened fecal pellets. Mudstones and stromatolite mats.
Carbonate deposition in moderately shallow, warm water, with low terrigenous siliclastic input. Cold-
water assemblages of benthic forams, mollusks, barnacles, bryozoans, and calcareous red algae.
Warmer waters contain green algae, ooids, aggregate grains, and lime mud. Sandstone, mudrocks,
limestone, and chalk.
11. lagoon - sediment sources include rivers, ocean, shores, and barriers, organic production,
chemical precipitation, and erosion. Mainly fine-grained as a low-energy environment. If siliclastic
input are low, chemical and biochemical processes dominate. May have evaporites with carbonate
muds and associated skeletal debris Algal mats may trap mud to form stromatolites with mudcracks.
Subtidal lagoon sediments may contain coal, shales, and carbonaceous materials and plant imprints.
Shales and limestones.
12. continental shelf - both siliclastic (especially in modern shelves) and carbonate sediments, mainly
in tropical areas. Remnant sand bodies, with ripple and dune bedforms. Hummocky (mounded) cross-
stratification with bioturbated mudstones. Invertebrates include mollusks, echinoderms, corals,
sponges, worms, and arthropods -agents of bioturbation in muddy sediments, fecal pellets, shells.
Mudrocks.
13. organic reef - modern in shallow water. Skeletal mounds of reef-building organisms, calcareous
algae, bryozoans, sponges, hexacorals; skeletal-rich lime mud mounds; stromatolite mounds. Non-
framework echinoderms, green algae, and mollusks. Wave-broken bioclasts. Deeper lime muds or
shales, back reef sands, and finer lagoon deposits. Limestone.
14. submarine fan - discharge turbidites (turbidity/dense current sediments) of normally graded silt
and clay laminated or massive, with casts as bioturbation is reduced. Sands, silty sands, or gravelly
sands with clays. Mudstone and sandstone with graded beds.
15. deep marine environment - settling of pyroclastic materials; floating ice dumps sediment of mixed
sizes; fine-sized siliclastic particles (minerals, quartz, feldspar) with organic forming mixed
biogenic/siliclastic sediment; terrigenous sources (gravel, sand, and mud) and pelagic sources (clays,
biogenic remains) Remains of diatoms, forams, and nannofossils, fine lime muds from carbonate
platforms; bioturbation. On continental rises, contour current deposits, mottled silty and fine sand with
bioturbation. Glacial marine sediments angular, faceted, and striated pebbles. Pelagic clays are
siliclastic muds with clay minerals, zeolites, iron oxides, and dust or ash. Calcareous oozes of foram
and coccolith tests along with pteropods. Siliceous oozes of diatoms and radiolarians,
silicoflagellates, and sponge spicules in high latitudes. Deep-sea of sandstones, shales, and
conglomerates, bedded cherts, and chalks and marls and breccias. Graptolites and ammonites in
older rocks. Claystone.