Sediments and Strata

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Page ID: 4058

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This page has a growing set of photos of sedimentary structures, both modern and ancient. Many of the photos have explanations or questions associated with them. They are designed to supplement the text book, which I feel has too few photos. I recommend looking at these with the text in hand to compare the description of how stratification types form to actual structures. One of your first observations will probably be that the real world is much more complex than the text book descriptions! The photos are arranged by sedimentary structure type and depositional environment. Each topic below connects to another page with thumbnail photos that are linked to larger photos. Many of the photos appear on more than one page because they show multiple features.

Videos (Links open a new window)

Computer Animations of how bedforms relate to cross stratification and comparisons of animations and real bedform examples, both from Ruben and Carter at the USGS. These are great!