Sedimentary

Structures
Clues to depositional environments
Structures of sedimentary
rocks
• Sedimentary structures are large-scale features of
sedimentary rocks
• Parallel bedding, cross bedding, ripples, and mud
cracks - are best studied in the field
• Interpreting ancient sedimentary environment
• sediment transport mechanisms, paleocurrent flow
directions, relative water depth, and relative current
velocity.
• They are generated by a variety of sedimentary
processes,
• Including fluid flow, sediment-gravity flow, soft-
sediment deformation, and biogenic activity

• They reflect environmental conditions that prevailed

at, or very shortly after, the time of deposition
Inferences for environments?
• Bedding - episodic deposition, undisturbed sediment

• Ripples marks - margins of streams, windy

environments (current of wind or water)

• Cross-bedding - margins of streams, desert dunes

(similar to ripples - the cross-beds are inside!)

• Mudcracks - seasonal lakes, margins of rivers or lakes

(occasional drying out of environment)
• Sedimentary structures are particularly abundant in siliciclastic sedimentary
rocks, but they occur also in rocks such as limestones and evaporites .

• Classification

• Primary • Physical
• Secondary • Chemical
• Biological
Primary structures

• Sedimentary structures are grouped into three

broad categories
• Stratification structures and bed forms,
• Bedding and lamination, bed forms, cross-
stratification, and irregular stratification
• Bedding-plane markings
• And other structures
• Primary sedimentary structures are generated by
four fundamental kinds of processes
• Mainly deposition (depositional structures),
• Processes that involve erosion followed by
deposition (erosional structures)
• Deposition followed by physical soft-sediment
deformation (deformation structures)
• Biogenically mediated deposition or nonbiogeneic
deposition followed by biogenic modification
(biogenic structures).
Stratification and bedforms
Bedding and Lamination
•Beds are tabular or lenticular layers of sedimentary
rock that have similar lithologic, textural, or
structural characters, that can clearly distinguish
from strata above and below
Terminology for sedimentary
structures and beds
• Groups of similar planar beds are
called bedsets
• Simple bedsets – similar
compositions, textures, and
internal structures
• Composite bedsets- differ in
these characteristics but that are
genetically associated
• Cross-stratified bed is sometimes
referred to as a set of cross-strata,
• And a succession of such sets is
called a coset.
Parallel beds
• Beds that contain internal
layers that are essentially
parallel to the bedding
surfaces are said to be planar-
stratified.
Cross-bedding
• Sedimentary layers deposited at an angle to the
underlying set of beds
• Cross-bedding can be produced when wind blows
over a sand surface and creates sand dunes
Development of Cross-Bedding
Laminated bedding

• Some sedimentary rocks

display internal
laminations parallel to
bedding surfaces

Distinguished on the basis of differences in grain

size, clay and organic matter content, mineral
composition, microfossil and color
Graded beds
• Sediment layer (formed by a
single depositional event) in
which particle size varies
gradually with the coarsest
particles on the bottom
• Inversely graded bed = fines
on bottom and coarse grains on
top
Graded Bedding = Vertical Decrease of
Sediment Size

Turbidity Current = Turbidite = RESPONSE

PROCESS
The ‘Bouma sequence’
in a turbidite deposit
Surface sedimentary features
• Ripple Marks

• Mud cracks

• Raindrop impressions form on exposed sediment by

raindrop impacts
Ripple marks – indicate currents
• Small surface ridges produced when water or
wind flows over sediment after it is deposited
Asymmetric and Symmetric Ripples

river or wind currents tidal currents

(uni-directional) (bi-directional)
Mud cracks -desiccation cracks
• Mud cracks are polygonal pattern occur on the top of a
sediment layer when muddy sediment dries and shrink
• As water is lost the volume reduces clusters of clay
minerals pull apart developing cracks in the surface
Origin of Mud Cracks
Syneresis cracks
• Are shrinkage cracks that form
under water in clayey
sediments
• As the clay layer settles and
compacts, it shrinks to form
single cracks in the surface of
the mud.
• In contrast to desiccation
cracks, syneresis cracks are not
polygonal but are simple,
straight or slightly curved
tapering cracks
Erosional sedimentary
structures

• A turbulent flow over the surface of sediment can

result in the partial and localized removal of
sediment

• Small-scale erosional features on a bed surface

are referred to as sole marks
Bedding-plane markings
Sole marks
• Small-scale erosional features on a bed surface
are referred as sole marks
• They are preserved in the rock record when
another layer of sediment is deposited on top
leaving the feature on the bedding plane
• Sole marks may be divided into
• Scour marks - form as a result of turbulence in the
water causing erosion
• Tool marks - impressions formed by objects
carried in the water flow
Scour marks
Flute casts
• Flute casts are elongated
ridges that have at one end
a bulbous nose that
broaden toward the other
end and merges gradually
with the surface of the bed
Groove casts
• These structures are
elongate, nearly straight
ridges that result from
the infilling of grooves
produced by some object
dragged over a mud
bottom
Current crescents
Also called obstacle scours,

They occur as narrow

semicircular or horseshoe-
shaped troughs, which form
around small obstacles such
as pebbles or shells owing to
current scour
Load structure
• Formed when denser materials overlie beds of lesser
density.
• Ball and pillow structure - Is a type of load structure
Other structures
• Sandstone dikes and sills
• These are formed by filling of fractures in any kind
of host rock.
• They range in thickness from a few centimeters to 10
meters or more
• They are apparently formed from liquefied sand
forcefully injected upward into fractures
Biogenic structures:
stromatolitic bedding
• Stromatolites are organosedimentary structures
formed largely by the trapping and binding activities
of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria).
• They are known from rocks of Precambrian age and
are forming today in many localities.
Stromatolites
Four broad categories of
biogenic structures are
recognized
•(1) Bioturbation structures ( tracks, trails, root
penetration structures) arising from organic activity
that tends to penetrate, mix, or otherwise disturb
sediment,
• (2) Bioerosion structures (borings, scrapings,
bitings),
• (3) Biostratification structures (stromatolites, graded
bedding of biogenic origin),
• (4) excrement (coprolites, such as fecal pellets or
fecal castings).
Structures of secondary
origin
• The majority of these secondary structures are of
chemical origin
Concretions
• Form by precipitation of minerals around a center, building
up a globular mass.
• Some concretions have a distinct nucleus, such as a shell or
shell fragment, but many do not.
• When cut open, concretions may display concentric banding
around the center or may display little or no internal
structure.
• They range in shape from nearly spherical bodies to disc-
shaped, cone-shaped, and pipe-shaped bodies;
• Size from less than a centimeter to as much as 3 m.
• Some concretions are syndepositional in origin, however,
most concretions are probably postdepositional
• Concretions are especially common in sandstones and
shales but can occur in other sedimentary rocks.
Nodules
• Are closely related to concretions

• They are small, irregularly rounded bodies

• They generally have no internal structure except the

preserved remnants of original bedding or fossils.

• Common minerals that make up nodules include

chert, apatite (phosphorite), anhydrite, pyrite, and
manganese
Color banding,
• Is a type of rhythmic layering resulting from the
precipitation of iron oxide in fluid-saturated
sediments to form thin, closely spaced, commonly
curved layers

• Layers having various shades of red, yellow, or

brown alternate with white or cream layers.
Stylolites
• Stylolites are suture- or stylus-like structure
• Seen in cross-section, in generally homogeneous,
thick-bedded sedimentary rocks
• Result from the irregular, interlocking penetration of rock
on each side of the suture.
• They are typically only
a few centimeters thick,
• regarded to form as
a result of pressure
solution.
Cone-in-cone structure
• It consists of nested sets of small concentric cones,
composed, in most examples, of calcium carbonate, with
individual cones ranging in height mainly from 10 mm to
1 cm
• Cone-in-cone structure generally occurs in thin, persistent
layers of fibrous calcite, commonly in association with
concretions;

• Common in shales and

marly limestones
Geodes
• Are cavities in rocks lied with crystals projecting towards the
centre