Sedimentology

There are three types of rock—igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. Sedimentary rocks form from the weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition of older rocks. Applied Sedimentology describes the formation, transportation and deposition of sediment, and the post-depositional processes that change soft sediment into sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rocks include sandstones, limestones and mudstones. All the world's coal, most of its water and fossil fuels, and many mineral deposits occur in sedimentary rocks. Applied Sedimentology shows how the study of sediments aids the exploration for and exploitation of natural resources, including water, ores and hydrocarbons. * Completely revised edition; Like its precursor, it describes sediments from sand grains to sedimentary basins; Features up-to date account and critique of sequence and cyclostratigraphy * Extensively illustrated with photos and remotely sensed sea bed images describing sedimentary processes, products and depositional systems; Color plates illustrate sediment textures, lithologies, pore types, diagenetic textures, and carbonate and clastic sequence stratigraphic models * Emphasises the applications of sedimentology to the exploration for and exploitation of natural resources, including water, ores and hydrocarbons * Extensive references and up-to-date bibliography for further study

Sedimentology and stratigraphy are neighbors yet distinctly separate entities within the earth sciences. Sedimentology searches for the common traits of sedimentary rocks regardless of age as it reconstructs environments and processes of deposition and erosion from the sediment record. Stratigraphy, by contrast, concentrates on changes with time, on measuring time and correlating coeval events. Sequence stratigraphy straddles the boundary between the two fields. This book, dedicated to carbonate rocks, approaches sequence stratigraphy from its sedimentologic background. This book attempts to communicate by combining different specialities and different lines of reasoning, and by searching for principles underlying the bewildering diversity of carbonate rocks. It provides enough general background, in introductory chapters and appendices, to be easily digestible for sedimentologists and stratigraphers as well as earth scientists at large.

This fully revised and updated edition introduces the reader to sedimentology and stratigraphic principles, and provides tools for the interpretation of sediments and sedimentary rocks. The processes of formation, transport and deposition of sediment are considered and then applied to develop conceptual models for the full range of sedimentary environments, from deserts to deep seas and reefs to rivers. Different approaches to using stratigraphic principles to date and correlate strata are also considered, in order to provide a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of sedimentology and stratigraphy. The text and figures are designed to be accessible to anyone completely new to the subject, and all of the illustrative material is provided in an accompanying CD-ROM. High-resolution versions of these images can also be downloaded from the companion website for this book at: www.wiley.com/go/nicholssedimentology.

A concise account of all major branches of sedimentary geology, highlighting the connecting links between them. Introduction; Processes of sedimentation; Sedimentary texture; Sedimentary petrology; Hydraulics, sediment transportation and structures of mechanical origin; Sedimentary environments and facies; Tectonics and sedimentation; Stratigraphy and sedimentation; Basin analysis: A synthesis; References; Index.

This title incorporates conceptual advancements without neglecting sedimentary processes and the observation of sedimentary bodies. Reconstruction of environments and basin analysis are also discussed, using field data, well logging and seismic data.

Sedimentology has seen many significant advances and changes over the past 40 years, ranging from facies modelling to sequence stratigraphy; chemostratigraphy to basin analysis; and the integration of studies of physical, chemical and, increasingly, biological processes in the interpretation and prediction of sedimentary environments and products. The subject is becoming ever more interdisciplinary and applied, and now has far more links to other physical sciences. Research and debate are continuing afresh as we move into this new interdisciplinary phase and promise many developments and increased uses of our subject. Now seemed a good time to publish a series of review papers concerning some key current areas of research. We hope that these papers will provide comprehensive starting points for those wishing to become acquainted with an area, act as stimuli for debate, and provide awareness and ideas for future research avenues. No issue of this sort can, of course, ever be truly comprehensive in its coverage: these reviews concern only selected snippets from the wide scope of sedimentology and each has, of necessity, been selective in its own area.

The sedimentary record on Earth stretches back more than 4.3 billion years and is present in more abbreviated forms on companion planets of the Solar System, like Mars and Venus, and doubtless elsewhere. Reading such planetary archives correctly requires intimate knowledge of modern sedimentary processes acting within the framework provided by tectonics, climate and sea or lake level variations. The subject of sedimentology thus encompasses the origins, transport and deposition of mineral sediment on planetary surfaces. The author addresses the principles of the subject from the viewpoint of modern processes, emphasising a general science narrative approach in the main text, with quantitative background derived in enabling ‘cookie’ appendices. The book ends with an innovative chapter dealing with how sedimentology is currently informing a variety of cognate disciplines, from the timing and extent tectonic uplift to variations in palaeoclimate. Each chapter concludes with a detailed guide to key further reading leading to a large bibliography of over 2500 entries. The book is designed to reach an audience of senior undergraduate and graduate students and interested academic and industry professionals.