A distinguishable set of properties of a sedimentary deposit, including composition, grain size, structures and biological contents, interpreted in relation to its depositional environment. Spatial and vertical changes among sedimentary facies help reconstruct a paleoenvironment; no single property invariably identifies a unique setting.
Rise of a depositional surface through net sediment accumulation. It can fill a hanging-wall basin and conceal an active fault scarp.
A region of long-term accommodation and accumulation of sediments, commonly associated with subsidence. Its gravity anomaly depends on geometry and the geophysical density contrast between fill and surrounding rock.
The source and transport history of sediments, inferred from composition, mineral ages and geological relationships.
A zircon grain eroded from its source and deposited as a sedimentary particle. Its crystallization age can precede deposition by a long interval.
An accumulation of deposited sediments or precipitated sedimentary material.
A sedimentary rock composed mainly of calcium carbonate, commonly calcite. Many limestones form through biological or chemical carbonate accumulation in marine settings, while others form in lakes. Burial, cementation, dissolution and fractures can strongly alter their porosity and porous permeability.
Material deposited directly by ice or by associated meltwater. Its sedimentary facies, transport directions and age constrain a former glacial paleoenvironment. Correlating such deposits across continents can test continental reconstruction, but requires distinguishing the original depositional record from later transport and deformation.
Slope-derived sediments transported chiefly by gravity and local slope processes. Collapse and raveling of an earthquake fault scarp can supply a colluvial wedge.
A wedge-shaped slope deposit, commonly thickest beside a scarp and thinning away from it. When combined with faulting, burial and cross-cutting relations it can record a past surface-rupturing earthquake; a wedge alone does not prove a separate event.
Loose sediments transported and deposited by flowing water, such as channel or floodplain material. Their strength, saturation and thickness affect how a buried fault ruptures the surface.
A deposit formed by precipitation of dissolved substances as a solution becomes concentrated, commonly by evaporation.
Fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of mud-sized particles.
A depositional body built where a sediment-bearing river enters a more slowly moving body of water. Its internal structure and basin context distinguish it from other fan-shaped deposits.
A deposit formed in a lake. Fine lacustrine deposits can archive past water chemistry and preserve organic matter.
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