Sedimentary rocks and structures
Some examples of sedimentary rocks and structures from different depositional environments and age
Feel free to use these images, just give the credits….
Southern Alps
Pizzo del Diavolo
Mud cracks in claystone from a continental succession in arid/semiarid climate. Imprints of rain drops are present (Pizzo del Diavolo Formation, Early Permian)
Southern Alps
Val Taleggio
Slump overfolds developed in dark, well-bedded basinal limestone, along the slope of a fault-controlled intraplatform basin (Zorzino Limestone, Late Triassic)
Corsica
Bonifacio
Submarine dunes produced by a dominant current coming from the right alternating with plane-parallel beds in marine carbonates (Bonifacio Formation, Miocene)
Southern Alps
Val Dorizzo
Climbing ripples in volcaniclastic sediments deposited in an endorheic basin during sheet floods (Collio Formation, Val Dorizzo Member, Early Permian)
Southern Alps
Concarena
Margin-derived, poorly-selected, clinostratified slope breccias on the flank of a prograding high-relief carbonate platform (Esino Limestone, Middle Triassic)
Southern Alps
Zorzone
Bioclastic floatsone with bivalves and gastropods covered by stromatolitic boundstone in a peritidal carbonate succession (Breno Formation, Carnian)
Southern Alps
The dolomites
Current ripple in section (below) and plain view (above), in marine coastal sediments (Werfen Formation, Early Triassic)
Southern Alps
Pizzo Formico
Fractures filled by dark sediments in shallow-water dolomitized carbonates recording syndepositional extensional tectonics (Dolomia Principale, Late Triassic)
Southern Alps
Monte Farno
Large oncoids in a continental lacustrine-palustrine environment, deposited in a fault-controlled basin in the Southern Alps (Pizzo del Diavolo Fm., Early Permian)
Northern Apennine
Levanto
Laminated turbidites with deformed laminations and water-escape structures (“Macigno”, Oligocene)
Southern Apennine
Campi Flegrei
Accretionary lapilli from a volcanic eruption in the Neaples area (Quaternary)
Southern Alps
Breggia (CH)
Metre-thick slumpings at the base of the Maiolica Formation (Uppermost-Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous)
Iran
Kuhr (Central Iran)
Bioclastic packstone-floatstone with orbitolinids and large ostreid bivalves (late Early Cretaceous)
Southern Alps
Lecco area
Red nodular limestone with ammonites deposited on a Jurassic high (Rosso Ammonitico Lombardo, Early Jurassic)
Southern Alps
Val Seriana
Greenisch siltstone with gypsum nodules and layers, sabkha environment (San Giovanni Bianco Fm., Carnian)
Northern Calcareous Alps
Altenmarkt Bei Sankt Gallen
Condensed Rosso Ammonitico facies with manganese crusts and nodules (Late Jurassic)
southern Alps
Pizzo del Diavolo
Vertebrate track in siltstone, note the trace of the tail (Pizzo del Diavolo Formation, Early Permian)
Sardinia
Nurra
Red sandstone with large scale cross laminations from floodplain (Porticciolo Conglomerate, Early Triassic)
sardinia
Cala Goloritzè
Breccias with black pebbles (with corals), related to a subaerial exposure (top of the Tului Formation, Late Jurassic)
southern alps
Barbellino lake
Burrowed, micaceous violet siltstone, continental sediments (Pietra Simona, Early Permian)
Sardinia
Cala Goloritzè
Oolitic grainstone with fragments of reef builders (stromatoporoids) deposited in high-energy shallow water conditions (Tului Formation, Late Jurassic)
Southern Alps
Pegherolo Mt.
Bioclastic rudstone/packstone with crinoid ossicles and bivalves in a backreef setting (Esino Formation, Ladinian)
Iran
Kuhr
Current ripples in quartz-rich sandstone deposited in a coastal alluvial plain (Chah Palang Formation; Triassic)
Iran
Anarak
Nerineid gastropods in a shallow-water sandy limestone at the base of a major transgression (Late Cretaceous)
Sardinia
Orosei
Inner platform bioclastic grainstone/ packstone cut by a sedimentary dyke filled with sediments, below, and cements, above (Bardia Formation, Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous)
southern alps
Concarena
Laminated claystone with large slump overfolds documenting instability along a submarine slope (Lozio Shale, Carnian)
Southern Alps
Brenta Dolomites
Dolomitized “terra rossa” paleosols recording the subaerial exposure of the top of a carbonate platform (Dolomia Principale, Norian)
Southern Alps
Orobic Anticline
Microripples in laminated silstones deposited in an endorheic basin with ephemeral ponds (Pizzo del Diavolo Formation, Early Permian)
Iran
Khur
Hard ground with Fe-oxydes, crinoids and glaucony (top of the Shah-Kuh Formation, Late Cretaceous)
Southern Alps
Mt. Pasubio
Large bivalves (Lithiotis) accumulation in plurimetric beds (Calcari Grigi, Early Jurassic)
Southern Alps
Pizzo Formico
Mimetically dolomitized microbial boundstone at the margin of a carbonate platform facing a restricted basin (Dolomia Principale, Norian)
Iran
Khur
Chert nodules and bands (dark, highligted by the weathering) within pelagic mudstone (Farokhi Fm., Late Cretaceous)
Southern Alps
Orobic Anticline
Soft sediments deformation structures in siltstones deposited in playa-lake environment (seismites, Pizzo del Diavolo Fm., Early Permian)
Southern Alps
Orobic Anticline
Lacustrine microbial crust enveloping irregular oncoids, continental carbonate (Pizzo del Diavolo Fm., Early Permian)
southern alps
Mt. Menna
Bioclastic grainstone/rudstone with talli of dasycladacean algae, inner platform (Esino Limestone, Ladinian)
Austroalpine
Dachstein
Intraformational breccia horizon in dolomitized inner platform facies (Hauptdolomit, Norian)
Southern Alps
Orobic Anticline
Heterolithic deposits with dark laminated siltstone-claystone alternating with low-angle cross-laminated fine-grained sandstone (ripple marks; Pizzo del Diavolo Fm., Early Permian)
U.S.A
Zion National Park
Cross laminations in aeolian dunes (Navaho Sandstone, Jurassic)
Himalaya
Spiti Valley
Ripple marks on the bedding surface in aeolian quartzarenite (Muth Formation, Devonian)
Iran
Kavir
Gypsum interval with chickenwire texture (Red Formation, Miocene)
Himalaya
Himachal Pradesh, Spiti Valley
Climbing ripples in a lacustrine intramountain basin (Quaternary)
Canary Islands
Lanzarote
Surge deposits (Quaternary)
Capo Verde
Sant'Antao
Pyroclastic flows with volcanic bombs (Quaternary)
Central Apennine
Bottaccione
Organic-rich deposits (Bonarelli Level) in a pelagic succession recording an Oceanic Anoxic Event (Cretaceous)
Sardinia
Iglesiente
Boundstone with microbialites and archaeocyathids (Cambrian)
Iran
Kavir
Red siltstones alternating with gypsum horizons, both with parallel laminations and enterolithic folds (Red Formation, Miocene)
Sardinia
Cala Domestica
Soft-sediment deformation structures in dolomitized fine-grained carbonates (Gonnesa Fm., Cambrian)
Sardinia
Dorgali
Harringbone cross stratification in ooidal granstone deposited in tidal flat setting (Dorgali Fm., Middle-Late Jurassic)
Southern Alps
Concarena
Large tepee structure in inner platform facies (Esino Limestone, Ladinian)
Sardinia
Nurra
Incised channel in laminated sandstones filled by conglomerates (Porticciolo Conglomerate, Triassic)
Corsica
Bonifacio
Cross-laminated bars of mixed carbonate (white) and siliciastic (brown) facies, with bioturbations (Bonifacio Formation, Miocene)
Southern Alps
Orobic anticline
Synsedimentary normal faults in heterolithic continental deposits, sealed by laminated siltstones (Pizzo del Diavolo Formation, Early Permian)
Southern Alps
Bagolino
Vadose pisolith in subaerially-exposed inner platform facies (Breno Formation, Carnian)
Iran
Anarak
Conglomerate with high mineralogical maturity, clasts all consisting of well-rounded quartz grains (Late Cretaceous)
IranSouthern Alps
Dossena
stromatolitic boundstone with fenestral fabric capped by a thin interval of loferitic breccias (Breno Formation, Carnian)
Sardinia
Nurra
Cross-laminated conglometratic sandstone bars (Porticciolo Conglomerate, Triassic)
Iran
Fariman
Base of a turbidite bed with flute casts, currents caming from the left (Permian)
Southern Alps
Pegherolo
Dark pendant cements in intraformational carbonate breccias related to the exposure of a platform top (Calcare Rosso, Ladinian-Carnian)
Southern Alps
Mt. Tremalzo
Accumulation of crustacean coprolites Parafavreina (Tremalzo Fm., Rhaetian)
Sardinia
Nurra
Bioclastic rudstone with large rudist bivalves (Capo Caccia, Cretaceous)
Northern Apennine
Val Nure
Chondrites bioturbations in deep water marls (Farini d’Olmo Flysch, Rigolo Member, Upper Paleocene-Lower Eocene)
Northern Apennine
Val Nure
Flute and grove casts at the base of a sandstone turbiditic bed (Farini d’Olmo Flysch, Rigolo Member, Upper Paleocene-Lower Eocene)
Northern Apennine
Val Nure
Zoophycos bioturbations in deep water marls, turbiditic succession (Farini d’Olmo Flysch, Rigolo Member, Upper Paleocene-Lower Eocene)
Corsica
Bonifacio
Bioclastic rudstone dominated by Heterostegina foraminifera and bivalves (Bonifacio Formation, Miocene)
Iran
Tabas
Poorly-selected congomerate from an alluvial fan (Quaternary?)
U.S.A.
Petrified forest National Park
Silicified fossil tree trunk in fine-grained fluvial sediments (Chinle Fm., Triassic)
Southern Alps
Zorzone - Monte Menna
Oncoidal rudstone with early-marine (dark colour) and late burial (white) cements in inner platform facies (Esino Limestone, Ladinian)
Corsica
Bonifacio
Large Thalassinoides trace fossils at the base of a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic bed in Miocene high-energy facies (Bonifacio Formation, Miocene)
Southern Alps
Monte Tremalzo
Dolomitized inner platform bioclastic rudstone with small megalodontid bivalves, some of them with geopetal filling (Dolomia Principale, Norian)
Southern Alps
Lago Nero
Clay chips in basal channel lags incised in laminated heterolithic continental deposits (Pizzo del Diavolo Fm., Early Permian)
Southern Alps
Barbellino Lake
Poorly selected, graded conglomerate in alluvial fan deposits, volcanic clasts (Val Sanguigno Conglomerate, Early Permian)
Southern Alps
Val Brembana, Cespedosio
Early-marine, radiaxial fibrous cements filling cavities in reefal microbial boundstone (Esino Limestone, Ladinian)
Southern Alps
Monte Fenera
Turbiditic sandstone with coalified wood fragments (Monte Fenera, Early Jurassic)
Central Iran
Khur
Zoophycos bioturbation in sandy limestone (Cretaceous)
Northern Calcareous Alps
Stumpfmauer
Bioclastic grainstone with Pentacrinus (crinoid )columnalia (Early Jurassic)
Southern Alps
Pegherolo, Val Brembana
Mud-free, poorly-selected clast-supported limestone breccia, cemented by isopachous fibrous radiaxial calcite: slope facies of a prograding carbonate platform (Esino Formation, Ladinian)
Southern Alps
Brenta Dolomites
Massive burrowed limestone with large megalodontid bivalves (Zu Limestone, Rhaetian, Late Triassic)
Ligurian coast
Finale Ligure
Bioclastic rudstone with bivalves (Pectinids) and brachiopods (Pietra di Finale, Miocene)
Himalaya
Spiti Valley
Hummocky cross stratification in sandstone deposited in offshore transition, below fair-weather wave base and above storm-weather wave base (Triassic)
Himalaya
Tibet
Glaciomarine deposits with dispersed dropstones, note the deformed laminations (Carboniferous, Gondwanan glaciation)
Cabo Verde
Santo Antão
Bioclastic rudstone with rhodolits (red algae) in volcaniclastic sandstone with black basalt pebbles (Plio-Pleistocene)
Souithern Alps
Val Camonica
Laminated crystalline gypsum with yellow clay interlayers (San Giovanni Bianco Formation, Carnian, Triassic)
Southern Alps
Val Brembana
Slump overfolds in dark basinal limestone facies deposited in fault-controlled anoxic basin (Zorzino Limestone, Late Triassic)
Scotland
Siccar Point
Cross-bedding produced by migration of undulatory small ripples seen along a section transverse to current direction (Old Red Sandstone, Devonian)