Depositional Environments

Lec. 1 Facies Analysis

DSRG

Dr. EHAB M. ASSAL

Damietta University
 Controlling Factors
 Sedimentation results from the interaction of
the supply of sediment, its reworking and
modification by physical and biological
processes, and accommodation space

 Accommodation space is defined as “the

space available for potential sediment
accumulation”
 Accommodation space is largely controlled by
external processes such as changes in sea
level, climate, tectonic movements, volcanic
activity, compaction and longer-term
subsidence rates

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 Weathering →Erosion → Deposition
Mountain/rocks are Sediments are Sediments are Layer after layer
broken down transported by dumped in a low is deposited
Weathering air, water and ice lying area due to the weight,
Erosion (ocean/sea) the ocean floor
Small pieces of Deposition sinks and more
rock collectively
called: Sediments
Low lying area in ocean
& sea where sediments
space is made D
end up is called a Stratigraphy
Basin

Due to the
pressure, the
sediments become
compressed and
hard
A rock is born

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 Depositional Environments

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 Depositional Environments
glacial

• Continental
• Glacial lakes
aeolian

• Fluvial
• Deserts
• Shallow and marginal marine
• Deltaic
• Linear shorelines (Barrier, non-Barrier)
• Estuaries
• Deep marine
• Offshore (continental slope)
• Deep marine (basin floor)

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 Depositional Environments
 Sediments accumulate in some environment
of deposition or depositional environments
 These areas receive net deposition
 Erosion may occur, but deposition dominates
 Features of these depositional environments
are preserved in the rock record
 Examples:
 Sediment texture
 Sedimentary structures (formed by processes in the
environment)
 Fossils of organisms that lived in the environment

Ancient environments can be

reconstructed from the clues that are
preserved in the sedimentary rocks
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 Facies
 The definition of facies was introduced by
Gressly (1838) and summarized by Middleton
(1973).

“A rock facies is a body of rock with specified

characteristics” or as

“a particular combination of lithology, structural and

textural attributes that defines features different from
other rock bodies”.

 It may be a single bed or a group of multiple beds, it

should be a distinctive rock that formed under certain
conditions of sedimentation, reflecting a particular
process, set of conditions or environment.

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 Facies
 All the properties of a body of rock that allow us to
differentiate it from those above, below or laterally
adjacent to it

 When sedimentary rocks can be handled at outcrop or

in cores , a facies may be defined on the basis of
 Color
 bedding
 Lithology – rock type, including color, etc.
 Composition – mineral content
 Texture – grain size, sorting, roundness
 Sedimentary structures
 Fossils

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 Facies
 A word facies is used primarily in descriptive sense.
 A term biofacies is used when the biological content
is significant.
 A lithofacies is more appropriate when fossils is
absent or not significant and emphasize is on the
physical and chemical characteristics.
 A microfacies is used to describe features from thin
sections.
 in more genetic sense (indicate a process by which the
rock is formed)
 turbidite facies for inferred deposits by turbidity
currents.
 in an environmental sense in which a rock or a suite of
rocks is thought to have formed.
 Fluvial facies or shelf facies

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 Facies
 as tectofacies ‘postorogenic facies’ or ‘molasse
facies’

 Facies are the products of depositional

environments
 Examples:
 Planar laminated fine quartz arenite facies
 Bioturbated, poorly sorted muddy skeletal limestone
facies
 Cross-stratified arkosic conglomerate facies
 Stromatoporoid-tabulate coral reef facies

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 Facies Associations & Sequences
 Individual facies vary in their interpretative value.
 A rootlet bed and coal sea implies that the depositional
surface was very close to, or above water level.
A rootled bed cannot be said to have formed in any one
environment. It may have formed in backswamp, or an
alluvial fan, or a river levee or at a shoreline.
Thus we have to recognize the interpretative limitations of
an individual bed

 A current-rippled sandstone implies that deposition took

place in the lower part of the lower flow regime from a
current that flowed in a particular direction. It give a litte
information regarding salinity, depth or environment.
A knowledge of the context of a facies is essential before
proposing an environmental interpretation.
 a gradded sandstone bed found interbedded with quiet-
water pelagic limestones and mudstones would be
interpreted differently from an identical graded sandstone
interbedded with wave rippled sandstones clearly
deposited in agitated shallow water.
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 Facies Association & Architecture
 Definition of facies on small scale, e.g.,
 minor changes in proportion of silt and mud.
 relative abundance and diversity of fossils.
 minor differences in the style of lamination, results in a
facies scheme where the descriptive differences outstrip
our ability to interpret the differences.
Therefore, it is useful to combine closely related facies
into facies associations “groups of facies genetically
related to one another and which have some
environmental significance” (Collinsoin, 1969).
 The larger scale facies associations have also been termed
architectural elements (Allen, 1983), implying that they are
the building blocks of the various depositional system. (e.g., a
river channel)
 The concept of architectural elements also emphasizes the
three dimensional geometry of the facies associations.

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 Facies Sequence (succession)
 In some succession the facies may lie in a preferred
order with vertical transitions. Thus , there is a
predictability about such successions that enables us to
anticipate within known limits what we shall encounter
as we move upwards or downwards through the
successions.
 A facies sequence (succession; sensu R.G. Walker,
1990) “is a series of facies which pass gradually from
one into the other”.

 Most facies sequences are bounded at top and bottom

by a sharp or erosive junction, or by a hiatus in
deposition indicated by a bioturbated horizon, a rootled
bed, hardground or early diagenesis.

 The importance of facies sequences has long been

recognized, at least since Wather’s Law of Facies
(1894)
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 Walther’s Law
 Only works where there are no unconformities
 Only facies that were laterally adjacent during
deposition (result of laterally adjacent environments)
can be stacked vertically
 Vertical arrangement of facies gives us information on
 Distribution of environments
 How environments migrated through space and time
 Used as a basis to build facies maps or
paleogeographic maps
 Accurate time correlation of facies is essential
 Time lines provide framework for correlation
 Bio-events
 Volcanic ashes
 Other thin, unique lithologies or marker beds

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 Walther’s Law
• Beach (foreshore, backshore, dunes) – low angle/horizontal bedding
• Shoreface (above Fairweather wave base) – dunes, cross bedding
• Offshore transition (above Storm wave base) – hummocky cross
stratification

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 Facies Model
 A facies model can be defined as a general summary of
a given depositional system

 Constructed from modern environments and ancient

rocks
 Serves as a
 Norm for comparison
 Framework for further observation
 Predictor of sedimentation patterns in new geological
situations
 An integrated basis for interpretation for the system that it
represents

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 Facies Pattern
 Groups of facies commonly show patterns:

 Proximal Facies (near the source) tend to be coarse

grained

 Distal Facies (far from source) tend to be finer grained

 This pattern is displayed upstream and down in rivers

and onshore to offshore in coastal areas

 Facies are arranged according to distribution of

depositional environments

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 Facies Migration
 Facies migrate through space and time
 Migration is in response to environmental
factors
 Sediment supply
 Sea level change
 Subsidence

 Facies become stacked during migration

 A single facies is likely to be different ages in

different locations

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DSRG

www.mans.edu.eg/FacSciD