What is a sedimentary rocks depositional environment?
A depositional environment is defined as a site where sediments (e.g. detrital, chemical) accumulated, governed by physical, biological, and chemical processes related to modern and applied to ancient environments, and lithified into sedimentary rock units.
Table of Contents
What is a sedimentary rocks depositional environment?
A depositional environment is defined as a site where sediments (e.g. detrital, chemical) accumulated, governed by physical, biological, and chemical processes related to modern and applied to ancient environments, and lithified into sedimentary rock units.
What are the major sedimentary depositional environments?
There are 3 kinds of depositional environments, they are continental, marginal marine, and marine environments. Each environments have certain characteristic which make each of them different than others. And different depositional environment, will have different structure and texture of sediments.
How do you determine the depositional environment of sedimentary rocks?
The characteristics that can be observed and measured in a sedimentary rock to deduce its depositional environment include its lithology (which is essentially its rock type), its sedimentary structures, and any fossils it may contain.
How are depositional environments identified?
To identify depositional environments, geologists, like crime scene investigators, look for clues. Detectives may seek fingerprints and bloodstains to identify a culprit. Geologists examine grain size, composition, sorting, bed-surface marks, cross bedding, and fossils to identify a depositional environment.
What are the three main categories of depositional environments?
The type of sediment indicates the environment of deposition. There are three major environments of deposition: marine, transitional and continental.
What are the 6 environments of deposition?
6.3 Depositional Environments and Sedimentary Basins
| Environment | Important Transport Processes | Typical Sediment Types |
|---|---|---|
| Terrestrial Environments | ||
| Lagoonal | little transportation | carbonates (in tropical climates) |
| Submarine fan | underwater gravity flows | gravel, sand, mud |
| Deep water marine | ocean currents | clay, carbonate mud, silica mud |
What can we learn from sedimentary structures about depositional environments?
A better understanding of the relative depth can often be determined based on the sedimentary structures as well as the community of organisms and types of trace fossils, which can be very sensitive to depth. In warm tropical shallow water area, we often find reef depositional environments.
What are depositional systems?
A depositional system is a three-dimensional assemblage of lithofacies formed within a particular environmental setting (e.g. alluvial, deltaic, eolian, fluvial, lacustrine, marine, and systems).
