What causes flaser bedding?

Flaser beds are a sedimentary, bi-directional, bedding pattern created when a sediment is exposed to intermittent flows, leading to alternating sand and mud layers. Individual sand ripples are created, which are later infilled by mud during quieter flow periods.

What are Flaser Heterolithics?

flaser bedding A form of heterolithic bedding characterized by cross-laminations draped with silt or clay. Flaser beds form in environments where flow strengths fluctuate considerably, thus permitting the transport of sand in ripples, followed by low-energy periods when mud can drape the ripples.

What is wavy bedding?

A form of heterolithic sediment characterized by interbedded rippled sands and mud layers. Wavy beds are commonly found on storm-dominated shelves (see shelf), but also in lakes, intertidal areas, and other environments where energy levels fluctuate appreciably.

How does lenticular bedding form?

Lenticular bedding is a sedimentary bedding pattern displaying alternating layers of mud and sand. Formed during periods of slack water, mud suspended in the water is deposited on top of small formations of sand once the water’s velocity has reached zero.

What causes convolute bedding?

Convolute bedding forms when complex folding and crumpling of beds or laminations occur. This type of deformation is found in fine or silty sands, and is usually confined to one rock layer. This deformation is caused from sand being deposited onto mud, which is less dense.

What causes wavy bedding?

Wavy bedding occurs when mud is deposited over the whole area of a bed of rippled and/or cross stratified sand. It usually loosely follows the alternating concave-convex nature of the ripples creating a wavy appearance. In wavy bedding the ripples are laterally discontinuous.

Where does cross bedding occur?

Cross-bedding can form in any environment in which a fluid flows over a bed with mobile material. It is most common in stream deposits (consisting of sand and gravel), tidal areas, and in aeolian dunes.

What is the difference between cross bedding and ripple marks?

RIPPLE MARKS are produced by flowing water or wave action, analogous to cross-bedding (see above), only on a smaller scale (individual layers are at most a few cm thick). The cross-beds or (more accurately) cross-laminae are inclined to the right, thus the water was flowing from left to right.