GEOL 462: Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy

Lecture 07: Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Discussions on Density Flow Deposits and Hummocky Cross-Stratification: Continue

Topics
1. Facies description and analysis
2. Facies associations
3. Graphic expression of facies
4. Paleocurrent and provenance analysis

Facies description and analysis
• Understand the basic elements of a sedimentary facies
• Understand the procedure of describing the sedimentary facies
• Read Fig. 5.2, p. 65, understand the concept of Lithofacies and the tradition for facies codes
• What does a lithofacies tell you about the depositional environment?

Facies associations
• What is a facies association?
• Give an example on how you group the lithofacies into a facies association
• Have a glance of the extra reading assignments to get a sense of different terminology being used in the literature on facies, facies associations, etc.
• What is the meaning of Walther's facies law?
• Give an example on how Walter's law applies to the vertical facies sequences
• Give an example that you cannot use Walter's law for facies analysis
• What is the meaning of facies models? Give an example

Graphic expression of facies
• Read Fig. 5.8, p. 73 to understand the facies description
• Copy page 71 and 72 and bring multiple sheets of these two pages for the field work

Paleocurrent and provenance analysis
• List 5 paleocurrent indicators
• Understand the rose diagram for paleocurrent
• What methods can you use for the Provenance analysis?
• What potential information you can get from the provenance analysis?