8.3A| Interpreting Erosional Agents Depositional Environments

The texture, size, angularity, and sorting of grains, sedimentary structures, fossils, and other features of sedimentary rocks provide insight into the environment in which the sediment was deposited.

Instructions

Using the content of the assigned reading, the lectures, the illustration below, and the table in your lecture textbook, identify the erosional agent, i.e. energetic stream, slow-moving stream, wind, etc., and the environment into which the sediment was deposited. Reach each question and choose the best answer choice. You have two attempts and no time limit. 

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Time Needed

0.5-1.5 hours.

An illustration relating depositional environments to grain sizes and sedimentary rocks. In particular, it shows how the sorting and angularity of clastic sediments are directly related to their maturity or distance traveled from their provenance (source). The figure shows a profile view of a basin, mountain, and slope leading down to the ocean illustrating different depositional environments. As sediment moves through different depositional environments it is altered and changed to reflect those environments.

Learning Objectives

• Students can explain the rock cycle, differentiate among the three types of rocks, and use texture and composition to identify common rocks and their origins
• Students can describe the role weathering, mass wasting, and erosion play in shaping Earth’s surface and can provide and/or identify examples of each of these processes
• Describe the processes that form different types of sedimentary rocks
• Use texture, fossils, and structures to interpret environmental conditions
• Use texture and composition to identify common sedimentary rocks and their origins (depositional environment)