Depositional Environments

Facies/Depositional Areas:

Aeolian

Dune sandstones (fine-med sandstones, large scale cross-bedding, hierarchy of erosional surfaces, no mud, clay or mica, well sorted, grainflow/grainfall laminae) Interdunes (fine-med sandstones, lag deposits, bioturbation, adhesion ripples, water deposits, poorly sorted) Evaporites playa lakes (salts) Sabkha - intense early diagenesis, dolomites, tee-pee structures, salts. Fluvial ephemeral rivers, caliche (calcite cements), gravelly. Alluvial fans gravelly. Dune/Interdunes = sheetlike Evaporites = sheets to lenses Sabkha ribbons to sheets Fluvial ribbons to pods Alluvial fans wedges or fans.

Geometries:

Trends:
No trends

Reservoir/Seal facies:
Reservoirs - Dune sands, maybe fluvial or alluvial. Seals evaporites, sabkha facies Baffles interdunes

Associations:
Red bed associations other non-marine reddish coloured environments.

Fluvial
Facies/Depositional Areas:
Channels (erosional bases, complex internal structures, cross-bedding, crosslamination, bar-foresets, erosional surfaces, mud layers) Amalgamated channels (multiple channels staked vertically or horizontally, called braid belts in braided fluvial systems) Pointbars (meandering systems only inclined accretion surfaces) Floodplains (mud, mud, mud, coal, mud, silts (lake or flood), thin sands, crevase splays, levees, bioturbation)

Geometries:
Channels ribbons Channel belts lenses, ribbons Pointbars pods or lenses Floodplains - sheetlike

Trends:
Fining upwards in channels and pointbars

Reservoir/Seal facies:
Reservoirs channels, pointbars, crevase splays, levees, floodplain sands.... Braided systems tend to be higher NTG Seals floodplain muds, lake deposits (muds)...

 Facies/Depositional Areas:

Shallow marine/Shoreline

Offshore below Storm Wave Base and also between SWB and FairWeather Wave Base, mud, mud, thin sands (turbidites), bioturbation (lots)... Shoreface above FWWB, sands (thin muds), hummocky crossstratification, bioturbation Foreshore exposed at low tide, minimal bioturbation, gently inclined cross-stratification or lamination, cross-bedding. Backshore above high tide, dunes, lagoons (mud), evaporites (salts)...

Geometries:
Sheetlike (linear depositional area, which migrates through time with shoreline location).

Trends:
Coarsening-upwards... Normally progradation is taking place. However sometimes if sea-level rises transgression therefore fining upwards.

Reservoir/Seal facies:
Reservoirs Shoreface, Foreshore and Backshore dunes Seals - Offshore muds and backshore lagoon/evaporites

Deltaic
Facies/Depositional Areas:
Mouthbars fluvial dominated delta (silt to sand, cross-bedding) Shorelines wave dominated delta (see previous slide) Channel/ridge systems tide dominated delta (fining-up sands to silts to muds) Fluvial delta top (see previous slide), except that coal beds tend to correlate in delta top settings, due to very flat delta top morphology. Marine (offshore) delta front (see previous slide)

Geometries:
Mouthbars lenses Shorelines sheetlike Channels ribbons Marine - sheetlike

Trends:
Coarsening-up overall, mouthbars coarsen-up, channels fining-up.

Reservoir/Seal facies:
Reservoir : Mouthbars, shoreline, channel, other fluvial.... Seals : Marine muds, fluvial muds...

Deep Marine
Facies/Depositional Areas:
Turbidites (sequence of sedimentary structures (massive, laminated, cross-laminated or convolute laminated, laminated grading up to bioturbated mud), sharp or erosive based, fining upwards, grain alignment) Gravity flow deposits debris flows... Very poorly sorted, mud matrix Marine mud (pelagic). Oozes biogenic muds, siliceous or carbonate, chert or limestone.

Geometries:
Sheets (turbidites, marine mud, oozes) Fans (submarine fans), channel ribbons (channelized turbidites)

Trends:
Fining upwards in turbidites...

Reservoir/Seal facies:
Reservoir : Turbidites Seal : Mud, oozes, debris flows.

Carbonates
Facies/Depositional Areas:
Reef (corals, framework carbonates, breccia of framework carbonate grains) Ramp (shoals, bars, mounds) Carbonate mud fields

Geometries:
Reef lenses, wedges Ramps sheets, lenses, pods Carbonate mud - sheet

Trends:
Not much coarsening-upwards in shoal and mound systems.

Reservoir/Seal facies:
Reservoirs: frameworks carbonates, packstones... Seals: carbonate muds Secondary diagenesis... Fractured reservoirs and dissolution....