The document discusses the depositional environment and facies of sandstone, providing definitions, history, and types of facies. It outlines Walther's Law, the various depositional environments, and characteristics of different sandstone types, including fluvial, aeolian, deltaic, and deep marine environments. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of understanding sediment deposition through various processes and the economic significance of fluvial deposits.

1. DEPOSITIONAL ENVIROMENT OF
SANDSTONE AND FACIE

2. PRESENTED BY 
M JAWWAD ILYAS
NAJM US SAQIB
SUBJECT : SEDIMENTOLOGY
COURSE CODE: Geol.504

3. CONTENT :
• Facie (Definition , History , Types)
• Walter’s law of facie
• Depositional environment of Facie
• Sandstone
• Depositional environment of sandstone
• Research Paper
• Conclusion

4. DEFINATION:
“The character of a rock expressed by its formation,
composition, and fossil content.”
HISTORY:
The word facies was first introduced by a Swiss geologist,
Amanz Gressly in 1838, as part of his contribution to the
foundation to modern stratigraphy.
Facies analysis refers to the interpretation of rocks and
sediments for the purpose of reconstructing the processes
that were responsible for the original deposition
FACIE

5. TYPES OF FACIES
There are four types of facies.
• Litho facies
• Icno facie
• Bio facie
• Siesmic facie
LITHO FACIE:
These facies are characterized by sedimentary attributes,
such as grain-size, sedimentary structures, bedding, color
ICNO FACIE:
The assemblage of trace fossils like foot prints and burrow traces.
BIO FACIE:
These facies are Characterized by fossil content (body fossils ) such as shell and tooth.

6. BIO FACIE LITHO FACIE
ICNO FACIE
SIESMIC FACIE
SIESMIC FACIE:
These facies are Characterized by seismic reflection amplitude and continuity. (Interpreted in terms of large-
scale lithologic characteristics).

7. WALTHER’s LAW OF FACIE
• Sedimentary rock types record the
environment of their deposition
• Deposition environment can shift
laterally as condition change
• When so , laterally related
environments become super imposed
• Time transgressive sedimentary
formation are the result of
• The vertical succession and lateral
sequence of facies will be the same
• Certain facies associations are common
in the record of rock.

8. DEPOSITIONAL ENIVROMENT
• Earth material is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is transported by the
action of wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity.
• A sedimentary environment has been defined as a “part of the earth's surface which is physically,
chemically and biologically distinct from adjacent areas”.
• Physical characteristics and geographical location determines the type of sediment that will be
deposited.
• Layers of sediment have distinctive characteristics that provide important information regarding the
geologic history of an area
• The characteristics that can be observed include its :
Lithology
Sedimentary structures
Fossils

9. DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF
FACIES
The depositional environment of facie
Includes :
 Alluvial fans
 Fluvial processes
 River delta
 Graded bedding
 Mudflat

10. ALLUVIAL FAN
An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments shaped like a section of a shallow cone, with its
apex at a point source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment.

11. FLUVIAL PROCESSES
Fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them.
When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glacio fluvial or fluvio
glacial is used.

12. RIVER DELTA
A river delta is a landform created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river as the flow leaves its
mouth and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary,
lake, reservoir, or another river that cannot carry away the supplied sediment.

13. GRADED BED
Graded bed is one characterized by a systematic change in grain or clast size from one side of the bed to the
other. Most commonly this takes the form of normal grading, with coarser sediments at the base, which grade
upward into progressively finer ones.

14. MUDFLATS
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where
sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A recent global analysis suggested they are as extensive
globally as mangroves.

15. DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF
SANDSTONE
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized silicate grains. Sandstones
make up about 20 to 25 percent of all sedimentary rocks.
The depositional environments are very important and determine the reservoir quality. They
sandstone beds range from terrestrial to deep marine. Depositional environment of sandstone
includes:
 Fluvial environment
 Desert
 Lakes
 Deltas
 Shoreline sandstone
 Shallow-marine shelves and empiric seas
 Continental margins and deep-water basins
 Glacial environments

17. FLUVIAL ENVIRONMENT
Fluvial or alluvial sandstones are not so well
sorted sand deposits containing carbonaceous
debris and clay trapped in the spaces within the
framework grains.
They are formed in river channel deposits and
terrestrial environments, and are commonly
developed on unconformity surfaces.
They often rest on eroded base with a fining
upward particle size sequence especially with
meandering streams.

18. Trough and planar cross beds occur in main part of sandstone beds dipping essentially downstream,
with ripples occurring towards the top. In plain view, fluvial sandstones have abrupt terminations of
sand bars.
The individual channel bar and point bars deposits are interleaved with shales and other muddy
sediments of flood plain origin.
The beds then developed on unconformity surfaces may thicken in the valley (down cut) areas and
be rich in sand, and become shale and thin in the between-valley (intervening) sections

19. DESERT/AEOLINE SANDSTONE
Aeolian sandstones are wind-blown sand dunes of coastal and desert environments. Dunes are
heaped-up shaped ridges of sand with crests either parallel to wind direction and perpendicular to the
prevailing wind (transverse dunes) although they may also be crescent- shaped.
Dunes advance down- wind direction by erosion of sand from up-wind side and depositing sand on the
down-wind (lee side).the up-wind face clearly has a gentle inclination while the down- wind face has a
steeper slope.
sand added to this steeper slopes runs down this slope adding to it and building cross beds which
when buried within the dune forms large scale high-angle cross beds whose dips are in the same
direction as wind direction, thus providing an indication of paleo current direction in ancient dune
sands.
Aeolian sandstones are extremely well sorted because of their wind-blown nature and hence have
good porosity and permeability.

20. Aeolian sandstones are commonly associated with evaporates which are salt deposits. They can thus
have a complex diagenetic history, which may in some cases block the pores of the sand with
chemically precipitating cementing materials.

21. LAKES
Sands and coarser sediments are being deposited along Lake
shorelines, in deltas where rivers drain into lakes, and on deep
lake-basin floors.
Coarse siliciclastic sediments are best developed in
hydrologically open lakes rather than hydrologically closed
lakes, which tend to be sites of evaporate and limestone
deposition.
Compared with their marine counterparts, beach sands and
gravels of the lake shoreline are generally less well sorted and
rounded because the level of wave activity is much less and
there are no tides.
Sediment distribution in a lake delta is broadly similar to that of
marine coastal deltas, although the delta sequences produced
are usually on a much smaller scale.

22. DELTAIC SANDSTONES
Principal reservoirs are in delta-front sands.
These deltaic sandstones form as deltas build out over the deeper water deposits, and are common
in post-organic sedimentary basins from Devonian to Recent for example Clinton sandstone in Ohio
(Silurian), Jurassic Brent deltaic sandstones in North Sea.
This is mainly due to individual delta lobes typically building out over and beside earlier lobes as
subsidence proceeds and basin fills.
Deltaic sandstones typically have a coarsening upward
sequence, with individual sand bodies often elongate,
lobate, or parallel to the paleo- shoreline but
discontinuous along strike.
During diagenesis; deltaic sandstones, although coarser,
may often be cemented by early-formed silica and are
commonly less productive.

23. Shoreline sandstones deposited on beaches are
narrow, linear, elongate and oriented parallel to the
shoreline while barrier shoreline sandstones are finer
grained than the beach deposits, and are more
discontinuous laterally.
Shoreline sandstones are convex upwards sand deposits with associated marine and lagoon shales serving
as both source rock and as well as seals these sands are best developed along gently sloping shoreline
areas, subject to transgression and/or regression with fluctuations in sea level.
Basin subsidence or sediment supply, and are mainly deposited in coastal and shallow marine
environments, but most significantly are those formed by beaches.
SHORELINE SANDSTONE

24. DEEP MARINE SANDSTONE
Deep marine sandstones are formed by processes operating in deep oceanic environment such as gravity
flows and turbidity currents.
The sands in lesser channel and the lower parts of the fan is
transported by stirred-up suspensions of sediment in water thus
forming a sharp erosive base with a fining up grain size sequence of a
few centimeters or tens of centimeters thick and a distinctive
sedimentary profile.
Petroleum which is generated from pelagic beds associated with
these sandstones, and channel up-dip towards the main fan feeder
channel, can be trapped in the sand beds of deep-water marine
sandstones.
Examples of deep-sea sandstone reservoirs include Ventura and
Los Angeles basins and Frigg field in Eocene of the North Sea.

25. CONTINENTAL MARGINS AND DEEP-WATER BASINS
Continental margins and deep-water basins are the
depositional sites Of sandstones and conglomerates derived
from adjacent slopes and shelves.
Transport downslope is through sliding and slumping, and
through sediment gravity flows; in particular, turbidity
currents, but also debris flows, and the less important grain
flows and fluidized sediment flows.
Slides and slumps involve small to large masses of
sediment, with more internal deformation (folding and
brecciation) occurring in slumps. Slumps may develop into
sediment gravity flows. Slides and slumps are typical for
slope environments and give rise to truncation surfaces
and discontinuities in generally evenly bedded fine-grained
sediments.

26. GLACIAL SANDSTONES
Glacial sandstones are poorly sorted matrix- boulder sand
deposits consisting of sands, lenses left by melt water
streams with reservoir potential and other glacial deposits
left by retreating glaciers as moraine deposits.
Examples of these glacial sandstones include tillites, with
little value as a reservoir due to low porosity. Glacial
sandstones may also be deposited in marine areas, giving
rise to muddy sediments with dispersed boulders.

27. Interpretation
This facie characteristic is
commonly associated above
eroded surfaces of channelized
facies. The existence of planar
crossbedding usually
represents seaward-inclined or
swash zone deposits. The
abundance of organic clay
pebbles in this sandstone layer
testifies to a high energy storm
deposits.
Foreshore deposits of Facies Fs
represent the highest energy of
the shoreline succession.
Characteristics
Geometrically, these facie consist of
thick planar cross-bedded
sandstone generally observed at
the eastern part of the area.
Bedding contacts with thin
mudstone is commonly sharp and
occasional abundant clay pebbles in
a random orientation. Physical and
biogenic sedimentary structures
are typically rare. Planar cross
beddings are common with coarse
to medium-grained sandstones
comprise the uppermost marines
and sandstones unit equivalent to
foreshore facie succession.
RESEARCH ON KUDAT FORMATION OF SANDSTONES

28. Sedimentary Facies:
The sandstone of Nagri Formation with alternate beds of conglomerates and siltstone/
claystone/mudstone formed a region, 55 km in length and 30km in width in the Sub-Himalayas,
Kashmir basin, Pakistan. So, the Nagri rock Formation forms the conglomerate (Para & ortho
conglomerates), sand (Massive, Cross bedded, & Parallel laminated sandstone) and clay
(Claystone/Siltstone/Mudstone) dominated facies. The Mudstone Facies are however rare.
RESEARCH ON SEDIMENTARY FACIES ANALYSIS OF NAGRI
FORMATION, KASHMIR BASIN, SUBHIMALAYAS, PAKISTAN

29. Parallel laminated sandstone facies
The lithofacies are categorized by parallel laminations in
sandstone. The sandstone is horizontally stratified and comprised
of fine to medium grained, very thin laminae and generally
contains sub angular to rounded grains. The sandstone exhibits
floated grain fabric, friable and is poorly sorted.
Massive sandstone facies
The facies are comprised of massive beds and medium to coarse
textured sandstone. The sandstone beds range in a thickness of
few meters to about 40 meters. The sand grains analyses under
the microscope are angular to sub rounded. The sandstone is
poorly sorted and immature. The scattered pebbles are present at
some locations ranging from 2cm to 5cm in diameter

30. Sandstone-dominated facie’s
The facies' are comprised of massive beds and medium to coarse
textured sandstone. The sandstone beds range in a thickness of few
meters to about 40 meters. The sand grains analyses under the
microscope are angular to sub rounded.
Cross bedded sandstone facies
This type of lithofacies contained small proportion of the Nagri
Formation as a whole. The sandstone is coarse to coarse grained and
composed of planar and trough cross bedding. The cross bedded
facies falls at the thickness of few centimeters to several of meters
and the thickness of an individual set generally lies between 25 to
100 centimeters.

31. REFRENCES
REFRENCE of Facies characteristics of the Kudat Formation
1. Fraser, H.J. 1935. Experimental study of the porosity and permeability of clastic sediments. The Journal of
Geology, 43 (8), 910-1010.
2. Fuctherbauer, B. 1967. Influence of different types of diagenesis of sandstone porosity. 7th World Petroleum
Congress, 2, 353-369.
3. Inden, R.F., and Moore, C.H. 1983. Beach In: Carbonate Depositional Environments. (Ed. Scholle, D.G. Bebout & Moore
C.H.). Mem. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 33.9.4.3, 211-265.
4. Cade, C.A., Evans, I.J., and Bryant, S.L. 1994. Analysis of permeability controls: a new approach. Clay Minerals, 29 (4),
491–501
LINK :
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322313422_FACIES_AND_SANDSTONE_CHARACTERISTICS_OF_T
HE_KUDAT_FORMATION_SABAH_MALAYSIA

32. References of RESEARCH ON SEDIMENTARY FACIES ANALYSIS OF
NAGRI FORMATION, KASHMIR BASIN, SUBHIMALAYAS, PAKISTAN
• Khan, I. A., Bridge, J. S., Kappelman, J., and Wilson, R. 1997. Evolution of Miocene
fluvial environments, eastern Potwar plateau, northern Pakistan. Sediment, 44,
221-251.
• Azizullah, Khan, M. A. 1998. Lithostratigraphy and depositional system of Siwaliks
of Singhar-Surghar Range, Thakhti Nasrati-Shanawah area, district Karak,
Pakistan. In: Ghaznavi, M. I Raza, S. M. and Hasan, M. T. (eds.), Siwaliks of South
Asia. Geological Survey of Pakistan, 71-80.
• Greco, A. 1991. Stratigraphy, Metamorphism and Tectonics of the Hazara Kashmir
Syntaxis Area. Kashmir Journal of Geology, 8 (9), 39-65
• Blissenbach, E. 1954. Geology of Alluvial fans in Semi-Arid Regions. Geological
Society of America Bulletin. 65, 155-190
LINK
file:///C:/Users/RB%20Computers/Downloads/2.SEDIMENTARYFACIESANALYSISO
FNAGRIFORMATIONKASHMIRBASINSUB-HIMALAYASPAKISTAN.pdf

33. CONCLUSION
It is conclude that the depositional environment is anywhere sediment
accumulates especially a particular area where a distinctive kind of deposit
originates from physical, chemical, and biological processes. deposition include
continental, transitional, marine each of which has several specific
environment. Fluvial channels has to do with the pathways through which river
flows. They flow downstream from mountainous region to lowlands. Braided bar
is the deposit of braided channel. Point bar is the deposit of meandering
channel. Fluvial deposits are of great economic importance.