The Handbook of Siliciclastic Facies: A guide to the interpretation of depositional environments

A new textbook on how to interpret siliciclastic facies

This is a practical guide on how to interpret siliciclastic facies assuming no prior knowledge. There are clear explanations starting with how sedimentary structures form and how they can be used to constrain the depositional setting. The focus is always on the types of facies that are commonly preserved in the rock record.

Every chapter or section starts with the processes that define that environment and what types of sedimentary features are likely to form. Then a simple archetypal facies model is built based on recent and ancient analogs. Complicating factors are added at the end to show how the archetypal model is likely to vary in local settings that may not be ideal.

Every term is clearly defined, and all the definitions are collected in a glossary at the end of the book. And each term is in bold the first time it is used and defined.

This book includes:

1. ▪ A table of contents at the start of each chapter to make easy to locate specific information (there is no index)
2. ▪ Lots and lots of outcrop and core photos to illustrate examples of just about everything.
3. ▪ Subsurface examples, particularly seismic lines are used to show large scale features, some never before published.
4. ▪ Archetypal facies models are presented in newly drafted block diagrams.
5. ▪ All chapters have a parallel construction starting with archetypal idealized models and then developing complicating factors.
6. ▪ Easy to use tables of all the depositional settings (such as delta front) with key recognition criteria and stacking patterns.
7. ▪ Illustrations are consistent throughout the book with the same format, symbols, etc. This makes it easy to compare stacking patterns between fluvial, deltaic, and shoreface, for example.