Sedimentology and Sedimentary Basins From Turbulence to Tectonics

About this book

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. Sedimentology and Sedimentary Basins 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.

Contents

Preface, xi
Acknowledgements, xiii

Part 1: Making Sediment
Introduction, 1
1 Clastic sediment as a chemical and physical breakdown product, 3
2 Carbonate, siliceous, iron-rich and evaporate sediments, 27
3 Sediment grain properties, 57

Part 2: Moving Fluid
4 Fluid basics, 69
5 Types of fluid motion, 84

Part 3: Transporting Sediment
6 Sediment in fluid and fluid flow—general, 113
7 Bedforms and sedimentary structures in flows and under waves, 132
8 Sediment gravity flows and their deposits, 171
9 Liquefaction, fluidization and sliding sediment deformation, 198

Part 4: Major External Controls on Sedimentation and Sedimentary Environments
10 Major external controls on sedimentation, 213

Part 5: Continental Sedimentary Environments
11 Rivers, 245
12 Subaerial Fans: Alluvial and Colluvial, 282
13 Aeolian Sediments in Low-Latitude Deserts, 295
14 Lakes, 319
15 Ice, 344

Part 6: Marine Sedimentary Environments
16 Estuaries, 371
17 River and Fan Deltas, 386
18 Linear Siliciclastic Shorelines, 417
19 Siliciclastic Shelves
20 Calcium-carbonate–evaporite Shorelines,
21 Deep Ocean, 514

Part 7: Architecture of Sedimentary Basins
22 Sediment in Sedimentary Basins: A User’s Guide, 563

Part 8: Topics: Sediment Solutions to Interdisciplinary Problems
23 Sediments Solve Wider Interdisciplinary

Cookies, 646
Maths Appendix, 697
References, 702
Index, 753

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Biography

Mike Leeder is Professor Emeritus at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. A geologist by training, at the University of Durham, he has researched and taught sedimentology since 1969, beginning as a graduate student at the Sedimentological Research Laboratory, University of Reading under the legendary Perce Allen and as faculty member at the Universities of Leeds and East Anglia. He is particularly interested in sedimentological fluid dynamics, basin analysis and the links between sedimentary processes and climate change.