Environments of Deposition

Learning Objectives

The Earth is not stable, it is being uplifted in some areas and eroded downward in others. 
Rock
weathering and erosion produces a continuous stream of sediments that are laid down in
layers.
Contained within these sediments are clues that geologists use to understand the Earth’s
past,
both geologic and biologic.  The sediments lithify to form rocks which stand as a record
of
Earth’s history.

Environment of Deposition: all physical, chemical, biological and geographic

conditions under
which sediments are deposited.  Geologists look at  environments existing today and the
sediments that they contain, from this they extrapolate the types of rocks these sediments
will
form.  Using the Principle of Uniformatarianism geologists compare rock units from
Earth’s past
to sediments of the Earth’s present and can determine past environments that once
existed.

Example- a tidal lagoon: sediment deposited in a tidal lagoon is composed of fine silts
and muds,
which lithifies into shales.  The environment is often anaerobic and the sediment is a dark
gray or
black, producing a similarly colored shale.  If a geologist found a black shale in an area
then one
possible interpretation for that area would be that it once was covered by a tidal lagoon. 
Fossils
found within the shale will help to further narrow the possible environment of deposition.

The type of sediment indicates the environment of deposition.

There are three major environments of deposition: marine, transitional and continental.

1. Marine: includes continental shelves, continental slopes, continental rises and

abyssal plain.
 

A) Continental Shelf: nearly flat, gently sloping edge of the continent that
extends under the
ocean.  Sediments wash off of the continent onto the shelf and range in size from
coarse sand
closest to the continent fining to clays.  In some areas coral reefs or carbonate
muds dominate the
shelf.
 

B) Continental Slope: more steeply sloping edge of shelf that extends down to
the ocean floor.
Sediments on the slope consist of fine silts and clays.
 
 C) Continental Rise: fan shaped deposit of sediment  at the base of the
continental slope, often
contains turbidite deposits from turbidity currents.  Sediments consist of sands,
silts and clays
from shelf.
 

D) Deep Marine: referred to as the abyssal plain, the ocean floor is blanketed
with a fine
sediment consisting of the microscopic shells of marine plankton.  Calcareous and
siliceous
deposits are the most common.
 

2. Transitional Environments: areas found along the edges of a continent.

 
A) Beaches: usually composed of sands or gravels.  Dunes of cross bedded sands
often form.

B) Tidal Flats: mud covered flats that are alternately exposed and inundated.

C) Deltas: formed at the mouth of a river, delta consist of cross bedded sands that
fine outward
and upward.

D) Barrier Islands: Semi-permanent sand deposits parallel to the coast lines.

 
E) Lagoons: area between barrier islands and mainland, lagoons consist of fine
silts and muds.

F) Swamps: low area on mainland adjacent to the sea, contain silts, muds and
organic deposits.
 
 

3. Continental Environments: found on the continent, includes a wide variety of

environments.
 

A) Fluvial Environments: includes many sub-environments.  Sediments consist

of sands, silts
and clays interlayered by meandering streams.  Sands are found in point bars and
along stream
banks and bottoms, clays and silts are found on the floodplain.

B) Lakes: silts and clays with organic deposits in some areas.

C) Arid Environments: evaporite deposits common as are alluvial fans.

D) Glacial Environments: large volumes of unsorted sediments.

E) Eolian Deposits: wind blown deposits characterized by uniform size of

sediments and cross
bedding.

Each of the environments above contain distinct sediments.  This enables geologists to
determine
the past environment of an area based on the rock types found there.  Other sedimentary
features
help geologists determine the environment of deposition.

Sedimentary Features:

I)Color:
 
 A) Black or dark gray: indicates the presence of organic material that was not
sufficiently
oxidized.  Forms in anaerobic areas such as a restricted basin, lake or swamp. 
Limited black
bands in a beach deposit are formed from ferromagnesium mineral separation not
organic
material.

B) Red, brown, yellow, orange: indicates the presence of oxidized iron.  Forms
in areas with
abundant oxygen, common in nonmarine deposits.

II) Texture: the size, shape and arrangement of mineral grains in a rock.
 
A) Size: the Wentworth Scale (p. 69) categorizes sedimentary grain sizes.  This is
important
because the size of a sedimentary grain infers the mode of transport of the original
sediment.
 

B) Sorting: refers to the size range within a sedimentary deposit, all sediment
grains are the
same size or sediment grains of many sizes are present.  Sorting can infer
environment of
deposition.
 

C) Rounding: refers to the roundness of the individual sediment grain.  Rounding

infers the
length of time of sediment transport and hence distance from the sediment
source.  This is
 important if the source has completely eroded.
 

III) Sedimentary Structures: these are the result of specific depositional processes.
 
A) Mud Cracks: form from drying of fine grained material after deposition. 
Important because
it implies that an area was intermittently wet then dry.

B) Cross Bedding: layers of sediments are inclined relative to each other.  Cross
bedding infers
deposition by either streams or wind.

C) Graded Bedding: repeating sediment layers that consist of material that fines
upward.

D) Ripple Marks: sedimentary layer has a rippled surface.  Symmetric ripple

marks form from
oscillating water movement under gentle waves.  Asymmetric ripple marks forms
from a constant
current or wind direction, the direction of the ripple indicates current direction.
 

Geomorphic and Geologic Studies

Following the early onshore research dealing with the geomorphology of coastal land
forms and process-oriented sedimentology, Coastal Studies Insititute researchers
started investigating the marine extensions of coastal depositional systems, especially
deltas and reefs. Driven largely by the availability of new technology such as side-scan
sonar and high resolution seismic, CSI researchers developed a marine geology
program that started with studies of the offshore Mississippi River delta and since has
encompassed other domestic as well as foreign study sites. In additional , marine
geology studies have expanded beyond the continental shelf to continental slope and
deep basin floor evnironments. Notable studies conducted by CSI researches in the
realm of marine geology include:

 the investigation of delta front instability processes in the modern Mississippi

River delta
 the study of carbonate reefs and shelf-slope sedimentary processes at numerous
sites throughout the Caribbean region,
 studies of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sedimentary systems including the Nile
Delta, northern Red Sea, Nicaragua's eastern Caribbean shelf, eastern Java Sea,
and offshore Mahakam Delta,
 a study of Mississippi Fan,
 on-going investigations of impacts o fluid and gas
 investigations of gas hydrate occureence in teh Gulf of Mexico continental slope
province.

In addition to the on-going marine geology studies of continental shelf and slope
areas, CSI researchers are actively collecting high resolution acoustic data, vibracores,
box cores, and geotechnical data from Louisiana's shallow lakes and bays. This
shallow water marine geology program is designed to collect critical data sets to
iprove our understanding of the changes taking place in Louisiana's coastal water
bottoms and associated marshlands. This program supports the overall effort to
understand and mitigate Louisiana's enormous coastal land loss problem.