general terms Flashcards
Allochems
These include ooids, pisoids, peloids, oncoids, and intrachlasts. It includes any carbonate clasts with D>fine sand (63microns)
2 Types of carbonate grains
Allochems: These are chemically precipitated CO3 minerals that have undergone transport.
Lithoclasts: These are carbonate rocks that have been weathered and redeposited. These are “carbonate clasts”
Further intra vs extra clasts designation for if the carbonates are from within the same basin as the resultant rock.
3D QFL diagram
%mud: <5%= arenites, 5>%mud<50%=wackes, %mud>50%=mudstones QFL: %qtz: %qtz>90%=qtz arenite, 75-90%=sublithic, sub-arkosic, <75%-arkosic or lithic
4 “minerals” of carbonates
low-Mg calcite: <4% Mg
High-Mg Calcite: >4% Mg
Stoichiometric dolomite: Calcite with (Mg/Ca)>1
Aragonite: CaCO3 with alternative crystal form. This is an unstable form of calcite that eventually reverts back to calcite. Rocks older than the Cretaceous have ~0% aragonite.
4 types of erosional bedding plane markings
- ) Sole markings: These are extruding features on the base of sandstones into shales (non-exclusive) and derived from erosional tools scraping the bed bottom.
- ) groove casts: “scraping” of tools along the floor, creates chevron or v shape dipping down-current.
- ) Saltation: bouncing…
- ) flute casts: These are shaped like yardangs and form in a similar way. The fat tail indicates flow direction.
A-Horizon
Zone of oxidation, leaching, organic reactions, humus, solutes, fine clay percolating. Approximately 5% rocks.
Actualism
The present processes approximate the past but it must be interpreted with a grain of salt.
Alfisols
Soils that are developped in moist, temperate climates. There is alot of insoluble cations (Fe + Al) in the alfisols. Chelation because of the high plant life increases the solubility of other cations. They are more temperate than oxisols.
Allochthonous carbonates
This is all carbonates with coarse grains (10% has D>2mm) that are not organically bound at deposition indicating that grains were transported.
If it is grain supported it is a packstone.
If it is matrix supported grainstone.
If there are more than 10% grains then it is a wackestone.
If there are less than 10% grains than it is a mudstone.
Are physical, biological, and chemical weathering discrete things?
They are not. Salt crystallization is an example of both chemical and physical weathering. Root wedging and fungal breakdown are biophysical and biophysiochemical.
Arenites NEED PIC
Sandstones that are composed of distinct grains and cement with a maximum of 5% mud.
Aridsols
Soils that form in deserts. They are poorly developed, solutes are relatively static because evaporation offsets any percolation. Many evaporites and dust.
Authegenic minerals
Minerals produced at the surface. Minerals precipitated through biologic, supersaturation, oxidation, or other processes.
Autochthonous carbonates
These describe carbonates that are bound together during deposition.
This includes framestones, bindstones (stromalites), and bafflestones
B-Horizon
Zone of accumulation (illuvial). Clay and solutes. Dark colors. ~80% mineral
Ball and Pillow Structures
Seemingly abnormal ball or kidney shaped bulbous structures protruding the base of a bed and likely derived from the liquification of surrounding sediment.
Bed Shear Stress
tau0=SW*h*S
SW=specific weight
h=flow depth
S=slope (gradient)
This represents the shear stress a flow exerts onto a bed it is flowing over.
Bedding Structure Matrix
Beds are either Parallel or Nonparallel and either Continuous or discontinuous. The three kinds of lineations apparent are Even, Wavy, and curved.
Bedforms
Mounds or troughs of loose sediment on a mobile bed forming @ sediment and fluid interface. They describe the relation of strata and are often similar in size/shape, perhaps show a pattern.
Turbulence produces bedforms.
Beds
Tabular or lenticular layers of sediment that share lithological, textural, or structural unity and have a heterogeneous nature when compared to other beds.
These include Sediment units, subdivisions, and amalgamation surfaces.
laminae<1cm thick
Structures are used to describe how layers are configured and aid identification of environments/depositional processes.
Bernoulli’s Principle
Derived from the conservation of energy and the principle of continuity where:
KE+PE+P(aka work)=Constant
If the path is obstructed by a grain and therefore V(flow) increases (see principle of continuity) and over a dx the PE is constant/~0 then the KE increases when traversing over the grain and therefore P (pressure) decreases. This forms hydraulic lift.
Biogenic Structures
These are the trace fossils of burrowing, boring, feeding, locomotion, cut-and-fill caving, and arise from bioturbation, biostratification (stromalites), bioersion, and excrement.
Vertical trace fossils indicate harsher environments that are more likely to be eroded.
Biological Weathering
The influence of plant life of the weathering process. Examples include root wedging and bioturbation. It creates a significant part of the weathering scheme.
Biological Weathering Examples
Chelation: The Bonding of metals with organic compounds with the effect of increasing their solubility.



