Sedimentary Geology The term sedimentology was defined by Wadell (1932) as "the study of sediments." (Selley opening sentence) " Sedimentology = the study of the processes of formation, transport and deposition of material which accumulates as SEDIMENTOLOGY sediment in continental and marine environments and eventually forms sedimentary rocks 1 Introduction " Sedimentary petrology = mineral composition of sed. rocks and its changes after deposition (diagenasis) " Stratigraphy = the study of rocks to determine the order and timing of events in Earth history " Sedimentary geology H" sedimentology + sedimentary petrology + stratigraphy ________________________________________________ "Pure' & "applied" sedimentology Applied Sedimentology Applied Sedimentology Mineral deposits & sed environments Sedimentary ores Rock cycle ver. 1 Introduction Sedimentary geology within the Earth sciences " Rock cycle: mountain formation and/or uplift; weathering and erosion; sediment transport, deposition, and diagenesis; metamorphism and igneous rock formation; renewed uplift& etc. " Structural geology/Tectonics (Geophysics); Geomorphology; Sedimentology/Stratigraphy (Sedimentary geology); Metamorphic geology/Petrology " Other closely related disciplines: Paleontology, Geochemistry, Geochronology 1 Sediments & sedimentary rocks: classification UNIFORMITARIANISM "The geological processes that operate today also operated in the past and produced the same results" In brief: Present is the key to the past Therefore, in Sedimentology ee reconstruct ancient environments by comparing recent geological processes and their products (which we can observe) with products of ancient geological processes. 8 2