JAWAD (THUNDER)

Presents

SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES
(Syn depositional structures)
SEDIMENATARY STRUCTURES
Sedimentary structures are important attributes of sedimentary rocks. They occur on the
upper and lower surfaces of beds as well as within beds. They can be used to deduce the
processes and conditions of deposition, the directions of the currents which deposited the
sediments and in areas of folded rocks.

Sedimentary structures are very diverse and many can occur in almost any lithology.
Sedimentary structures develop through physical and/or chemical processes before,
during and after deposition, and through biogenic processes.

Sedimentary structures are arbitrarily divided into primary and secondary classes.

Primary structures are those generated in a sediment during or shortly after deposition.
They result mainly from the physical processes, examples of primary structures include
ripples, cross-bedding, and slumps.

Secondary sedimentary structures are those that formed sometime after sedimentation.
They result from essentially chemical processes, such as those which lead to the
diagenetic formation of concretions.

STUDYING AND ANALAYZING SEDIMENTARY

STRUCTURES

Sedimentary structures can be studied at outcrop and in cliffs, quarries, and stream
sections. Large-scale channeling and cross-bedding can also be studied using ground-
penetrating radar . They can also be studied in cores taken from wells. Sedimentary
structures in cores are the easiest to describe because of the small size of the sample to be
observed.

There are two basic approaches to observing sedimentary structures. The first approach
is to pretend the outcrop is a borehole and to measure a detailed sediment logical
log. This records a vertical section of limited lateral extent.

The second method is to create a two-dimensional survey of all, or a major part, of

the outcrop. This may be recorded on graph paper, using a tape measure and an Abney
level for accurately locating inaccessible reference points on cliff faces. This method is
aided by photography, especially by on-the-spot Polaroid photos, on which significant
features and sample points can be located.

Consider now the interpretation of sedimentary structures. They are the most useful of
sedimentary features to use in environmental interpretation because, unlike sediment
grains, texture, and fossils, they cannot be recycled. They unequivocally reflect the
depositional process that laid down the sediment.

PRIMARY INORGANIC SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES

Primary inorganic sedimentary structure is classified into four major types which are.

1. PRE DEPOSITIONAL
• CHANNEL
• SCOUR AND FILL
• FLUTE MARKS
• GROOVE MARKS
• TOOL MARKS

2.SYN DEPOSITIONAL
• MASSIVE
• FLAT BEDDING
• GRADED BEDDING
• CROSS BEDDING
• LAMINATION
• CROSS LAMINATION

3.POST DEPOSITIONAL
• SLUMP
• SLIDE
• CONVOLUTE LAMINATION
• CONVOLUTE BEDDING
• RECUMBENT FORESETS
• LOAD STRUCTURE

4.MISCLLEANEOUS
• RAIN PRINTS
• SHRINKAGE CRACKS
We will not discuss the pre depositional type of sedimentary structure. we jump to
Syndepositional structures.

SYNDEPOSITIONAL STRUCTURES:

Syndepositional structures are those actually formed during sedimentation. They are
therefore, essentially constructional structures that are present within sedimentary beds.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEDDING AND LAYERING

It is necessary to define and discuss just what is meant by a bed or

bedding. Bedding, stratification, or layering is probably the most fundamental and
diagnostic feature of sedimentary rocks. bedding is sometimes absent in thick diamictites,
reefs, and some very well-sorted sand formations. Nevertheless, some kind of parallelism
is present in most sediments. Bedding is due to vertical differences in lithology, grain
size, or, more rarely, grain shape, packing, or orientation. Though bedding is so obvious
to see it is hard to define what is meant by the terms bed and bedding and few geologists
have analyzed this fundamental property.Here are two more arbitrary but useful
definitions:

• Bedding is layering within beds on a scale of about 1 or 2 cm.

• Lamination is layering within beds on a scale of 1 or 2mm 2 mm.

Bedding and lamination define stratification. Bedding is thicker than 1 cm whereas

lamination is thinner than 1 cm. Bedding is composed of beds; lamination is composed of
laminae. Parallel (also called planar or horizontal) lamination is a common internal
structure of beds.
MASSIVE BEDDING

An apparent absence of any form of sedimentary structure is found in various types of

sedimentation unit. It is due to a variety of causes. First, a bed may be massive due to
diagenesis. This is particularly characteristic of certain limestones and dolomites that
have been extensively recrystallized. Secondly, primary sedimentary structures may be
completely destroyed in a bed by intensive organic burrowing.

FIELD OCCURRENCE AND OBSERVANCE

Genuine depositional massive bedding is often seen in fine-grained, low-energy
environment deposits, such as some claystones, marls, chalks, and calcilutites. Reef rock
(biolithite) also commonly lacks bedding. In sandstones massive bedding is rare. It is
most frequently seen in very well-sorted sands, where sedimentary structures cannot be
delineated by textural variations.
FLAT BEDDING

One of the simplest intrabed structures is flat- or horizontal bedding. This, as its name
implies, is bedding that parallels the major bedding surface. It is generally deposited
horizontally. Flat-bedding grades, however, via sub horizontal bedding, into cross-
bedding. The critical angles of dip that separate these categories are undefined.

FIELD OCCURRENCE AND OBSERVANCE

Flat-bedding occurs in diverse sedimentary environments ranging from fluvial channels

to beaches and delta fronts. It occurs in sand-grade sediment, both terrigenous and
carbonate.
Flat-bedding is attributed to sedimentation from a planar bed form. This occurs under
shooting flow or a transitional flow regime with a Froude number of approximately 1.
Sand deposited under these conditions is arranged with the long axes of the grains
parallel to the flow direction.

PARTING LINEATION

Moderately well-indurated sandstones easily split along flat-bedding surfaces to reveal a

preferred lineation or graining of the exposed layer . This feature is termed parting
lineation, or primary current lineation. It is important to remember
that, like many of the bed sole markings previously described, parting lineation will not
be seen in friable unconsolidated sands, nor in low-grade metamorphic sediments.

GRADED BEDDING
The term "graded bed" is normally applied to beds measurable in centimeters or
decimeters. "Varves," typical of lacustrine deposits, are measurable in millimeters. The
term "upward-fining sequence" is normally applied to intervals of several beds whose
grain size fines up over several meters.

A graded bed is one in which there is a vertical change in grain size. Normal grading is
marked by an upward decrease in grain size. Reverse grading is where the bed coarsens
upward. There are various other types . Graded bedding is produced as a sediment settles
out of suspension, normally during the waning phase of a turbidity flow.

FIELD OCCURRENCE AND OBSERVANCE

The lower part of a graded bed is normally massive, the upper part may exhibit the
Bouma sequence of sedimentary. Normally graded beds generally represent depositional
environments which decrease in transport energy as time passes, but also form during
rapid depositional events. They are perhaps best represented in turbidite strata, where
they indicate a sudden strong current that deposits heavy, coarse sediments first, with
finer ones following as the current weakens. They can also form in terrestrial stream
deposits.

CROSS BEDDING

Cross-bedding is one of the most common and most important of all sedimentary
structures. Cross bedding, as its name implies, consists of inclined dipping bedding,
bounded by sub horizontal surfaces. Each of these units is termed a set. Vertically
contiguous sets are termed as cosets. The inclined bedding is referred to as a foreset.
Foresets may grade down with decreasing dip angle into a bottomset or toeset. At its top
a foreset may grade with decreasing dip angle into a topset. In nature toesets are rare and
topsets are virtually nonexistent.

Foresets may be termed heterogeneous if the layering is due to variations in grain

size, or homogeneous if it is not. Two other descriptive terms applied to foresets are
avalanche and accretion. Avalanche foresets are planar in vertical section and are graded
toward the base of the set. Accretion foresets are ungraded, homogeneous, and have
asymptotically curved toesets.

Basically, two main types of cross-bedding can be defined by the geometry of the
foresets and their bounding surfaces: Tabular planar cross-bedding and trough cross-
bedding (McKee and Weir, 1953). In tabular planar cross-bedding, planar foresets are
bounded above and below by subparallel subhorizontal set boundaries (Fig. 5.15). In
trough cross-bedding, upward concave foresets lie within erosional scours which are
elongated parallel to current flow, closed upcurrent and truncated downcurrent by further
troughs.

FIELD OCCURRENCE AND OBSERVANCE

It appears that much cross-bedding is formed from the migration of sand dunes or
megaripples. Flume experiments showed how these bed forms migrate downcurrent
depositing foresets of sand in their downcurrent hollows. If sedimentation is sufficiently
great, then the erosional scour surface in front of a dune will be higher than that of its
predecessor and a cross-bedded set of sand will be preserved. Tabular planar cross-
bedding will thus form from straight crested dunes.

In river channels, especially those of braided type, the course consists of an alternation of
shoals and pools through which the axial part or parts of the channel (termed the
"thalweg") make their path. Where the thalweg suddenly enters a pool there is a drop in
stream power and a subaqueous sand delta, termed a braid bar, is built out. Given time,
sufficient sediment, and the right flow conditions, this delta may completely infill the
pool with a single set of cross-strata .

A second important way in which cross-bedding forms is seen in channels. A channel

may be infilled by cross-bedding paralleling the channel margin. Alternatively cross-bed
deposition occurs on the inner curves of meandering channels synchronous with erosion
on the outer curve.

A third important variety of cross-bedding is that formed by antidunes in upper flow

regime conditions. It has been pointed out that at very high current velocities sand dunes
develop that migrate upcurrent . These deposit upcurrent dipping foresets. The foresets of
these antidunes, as they are called, are seldom preserved. As the current wanes prior to
net sedimentation, antidunes tend to be obliterated as the bed form changes to a plane bed
or dunes.
TABULAR PLANAR CROSS BEDDING
 TROUGH CROSS BEDDING

The term hummocky cross-stratification was first applied by Harms (1975) to a

particularly distinctive type of cross-bedding. Each unit contains several sets of irregular
convex-up cross-beds, some 10-15 cm thick (Fig. 5.22). Hummocky cross-bedding tends
to occur in regular sequences about 0.5 m thick (Dott and Bourgeois, 1982, 1983). The
base of each unit is generally a planar erosional surface with a lag gravel, often with
bioclasts. The upper contact is sharp or gradational.

Cross-lamination and cross-bedding

Cross-stratification forms either a single set or several/many sets (then

termed a coset) within one bed . On size alone, the two principal types of cross-
stratification are cross-lamination, where the set height is less than 6 cm and the
thickness of the cross-laminae is only a few millimetres, and cross-bedding, where the set
height is generally greater than 6 cm and the individual cross-beds are many millimetres
to 1 cm or more in thickness. Ripples are a wave-like bed form that occurs in fine sands
subjected to gentle traction currents. Migrating ripples deposit cross-laminated sediment.
Individual cross-laminated sets seldom exceed 2-3 cm in thickness, in contrast to cross-
bedding, which is normally >50 cm thick. It is hard to define arbitrarily the set height that
separates cross-lamination from cross-bedding. In practice, the problem seldom arises,
because sets 5-50 cm thick are rare in nature. Ripple marking in modern and ancient
sediments has attracted the interest of many geologists.

FIELD OCCURRENCE AND OBSERVANCE

Ripples, however, and the cross-lamination they give rise to, are commonly produced by
local flow directions which do not reflect the regional palaeoslope. In turbidite beds, for
example, cross-lamination within the bed may vary considerably in orientation and differ
substantially from the palaeocurrent direction recorded by the sole structures. The cross-
lamination forms when the turbidity current has slowed down and is wandering or
meandering across the seafloor. In spite of their shortcomings, if there is no other, more
suitable directional structure present (cross-bedding or sole structures), it is always worth
recording the orientation of the ripples and cross-lamination.
Wave-formed ripples are small-scale structures which record local shoreline trends and
wind directions; their crest orientation should be measured, or if visible the direction of
dip of internal cross-lamination

Simplest of all are the straight-crested ripples; these include ripples with both symmetric
and asymmetric profiles. Straight-crested or rectilinear ripples can be traced laterally
for many times further than their wavelength. They are oriented perpendicular to the
direction of wave or current movement that generates them. Sinuous ripples show
continuous but slightly undulating crest lines.

The second main group of ripples, as seen in plan, are those whose crest lengths
are generally shorter than their wavelength. These are exclusively asymmetric current
ripples. Two important varieties can be recognized. Lunate ripples have an arcuate crest,
which is convex upcurrent. Linguoid ripples have an arcuate crest, which is convex
down current.

A third main group of ripples can be recognized from their appearance in plan. These
are interference ripples, which, as their name suggests, consist of two obliquely
intersecting sets of ripple crests. Interference ripples result from the modification of one
ripple train due to one set of conditions by a later train, generated by waves or currents
with a different orientation.
Ripples occur today in many different environments, ranging from the backs of eolian
sand dunes, through rivers and deltas, to the ocean bed. It has already been pointed out
that ripples are closely related to a given set of flow conditions and that these may be
encountered in diverse environments.

POST DEPOSITIONAL SEDIMENATRY STRUCTURES

The third main group of sedimentary structures is a result of deformation. These may
be termed post depositional because, obviously, they can only form after a sediment has
been laid down. A great variety of deformational structures exist, many of which are ill
defined and strangely named.

Slumps and Slides

Slump structures, involve the penecontemporaneous plastic deformation of sand and

mud. Slump folds, however, commonly show clear evidence of extensive lateral
movement in a consistent direction. Where a sediment mass is internally deformed during
downslope movement, then the term slump is more appropriate. A slumped mass
typically shows folding; recumbent folds, asymmetric anticlines and synclines, and
thrust folds are common, on all scales.

FIELD OCCURRENCE AND OBESERBANCE

Slump folds are commonly associated with penecontemporaneous faulting and with
major lowangle zones of decollement termed "slide planes." Large masses of sediments
are lat erally displaced along slide surfaces. In rare, but fascinating cases, the top of a
slump bed may be covered by volcanoes of sand complete with axial vents and bedded
cones. These are formed from sand carried up during dewatering of the slump after
it came to rest.