1. Refresher Lecture 1A Sedimentary Rocks, Facies, and Stacking Patterns
ESS 400A
Summer 2017
Note: The Sedimentary refresher comes in two parts. Part 1A covers many of the basics. Part 1B, a more comprehensive lecture from sepmstrata.org has many more details on things like sedimentary structures, environments and stratal packaging. Please study both references as you see fit.

2. Outline Basic Classification Schemes Texture and Composition
Clastic vs carbonate vs chemical
Grain size, sorting, rounding, matrix
Tectonic signatures
Depositional Environments and Facies
Sedimentary structures
Fossils and trace fossils
Clastic environment examples
Carbonate environment examples
Vertical and Lateral “Stacking”
Transgressions, regressions
Sequence stratigraphy
Columns and written descriptions

3. Classification of Rocks
A common rock classification chart

4. Clastic grain size subdivisions

5. Sedimentary Rock Descriptors

6. Sandstone texture – rounding, sorting

7. A Simple Evolutionary Sedimentary Rock Model

8. Clastic Sediment and Rock Naming Conventions

9. Sand Provenance (QFL Diagrams)
“Mature”
“Immature”
(Granitic source)
(Volcanic-sedimentary source)

10. Four fundamental components of sedimentary rocks

11. Arenites vs. Wackes

12. Sand Provenance (QFL Diagrams)
The proportion of Qtz, Feldspar and Lithics in a sandstone will generally reflect the nature of the source area that flanked the sedimentary basin at the time of deposition.

13. Sedimentary structures
Sedimentary structures are features found within the sedimentary section, and/or on, and/or between, bedding plane surfaces subdividing that section
Related to scale and hierarchy of features they occur in, whether in sediments that have confined (as in a channel) or unconfined settings (as on a shelf), & associated but similar sized structures
Sedimentary structures provide critical versus general clues to depositional setting
There are MANY kinds of sedimentary structures. See Refresher 1B for examples of many of these.

14. Fossils and trace fossils
Fossils are found in many sedimentary rocks, and can be diagnostic of water depth, age of the strata and aerobic conditions in the water column.
Trace fossils are burrows, tracks, etc that were created by an organism which itself was not preserved. Ichnology is the study of trace fossils.
Fossils and trace fossils should be included in rock descriptions if they are present.
See Refresher 1B for examples of some of these.

15. Clastic depositional environments Wave-dominated shoreline example*
(*see Refresher 1B for additional clastic environments)

16. Carbonate depositional environments Barrier reef example*
(*see Refresher 1B for additional examples)

17. Basic stacking, transgressions and regressions
Transgression (sediments “retrograde”)
Regression (sediments “prograde”)

18. Sea level, sediment supply, subsidence
Strictly speaking, sea level change alone is not the sole cause of transgressions and regressions
Rather, it is the BALANCE between sea level, sediment supply and subsidence that conspire to cause vertical stacking patterns to prograde or retrograde

19. Cyclicity and parasequence stacking

20. Sequence stratigraphy (Sepmstrata.org)

21. Real example of parasequence stacking

22. Sequence and chronostratigraphy
Vertical axis is Time

23. Stratigraphic column examples

24. Stratigraphic column examples

25. Stratigraphic correlation between outcrop measured sections
Parasequence boundaries represent chronostratigraphic (i.e. time-synchronous) surfaces
Facies and environment interpretations are based on sedimentary structures, textures, and biota
Note that within any parasequence, more proximal facies grade to more distal facies from updip (west/left) to downdip (east/right) in the basin

26. Written descriptions of sedimentary rocks – an excellent example from a recent publication*
The Palm Spring Formation consists of lower and upper members separated by a widespread angular unconformity (Figs. 4, 6B, 8E). The unconformity marks the boundary between regionally extensive and relatively uniform facies of the lower member, and highly variable localized facies of the upper member in the central Mecca Hills.
The lower member of the Palm Spring Formation is 340 m thick in lower Painted Canyon where it conformably and gradationally overlies the Mecca Formation on the SW limb of Mecca Anticline (Figs. 3, 4, 6B). It consists of tabular, uniformly bedded couplets of grus-rich,
cross-bedded pebbly sandstone with plutonic and gneissic composition that fine up into biotite-rich ripple cross-laminated green siltstone and fine-grained sandstone to siltstone (Table 1, Fig. 7B). Individual beds are laterally continuous with sharp boundaries that are traceable for several kilometers along strike, typically with little change in facies.
Paleocurrent indicators suggest SE-directed transport (Fig. 6B). The lithofacies assemblage and stratal architecture of the lower member in the central Mecca Hills is similar to that seen in the Indio Hills 25 km to the northwest, providing evidence for its regional extent. Exceptions are observed in Eagle Canyon where the lower member consists of poorly sorted cobble to boulder conglomerate (Table 1), and in the southeast part of the study area near Hidden Spring Wash (Fig. 2)where similar coarse facies were previously documented (Chang et al., 1987; Boley et al., 1994).
The laterally extensive architecture and uniform facies of the lower member suggest deposition in a fluvial system composed of a migrating main channel or multiple channels (cross-bedded sandstone) and adjacent overbank floodplain (ripple cross-laminated green siltstone) that occupied a broad basin floor. The unconfined lateral migration of river channels created tabular-bedded fluvial architecture (e.g., Miall, 1985; Hampton and Horton, 2007). Felsic-plutonic and gneissic clast compositions, and SE-directed paleocurrents suggest that the lower member was deposited in a large river system that flowed SE down
the paleo-Coachella Valley into the Salton Trough, with sediment sources mainly in the Cottonwood and Little San Bernardino Mountains. Localized coarse facies of the lower member likely were deposited in proximal basin-margin alluvial fans.
The upper member of the Palm Spring Formation ………
Intro, brief generalization
Detailed OBSERVATIONS. Places in regional context.
Detailed INTERPRETATIONS.
* McNabb, J.C., et al., Stratigraphic record of Pliocene-Pleistocene basin evolution and deformation within the Southern
San Andreas Fault Zone, Mecca Hil..., Tectonophysics (2017),