In geology, depositional environment or sedimentary environment describes the combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes associated with the deposition of a particular type of sediment and, therefore, the rock types that will be formed after lithification, if the sediment is preserved in the rock record. In most cases, the environments associated with particular rock types or associations of rock types can be matched to existing analogues. However, the further back in geological time sediments were deposited, the more likely that direct modern analogues are not available (e.g. banded iron formations).
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Depositional in the context of Bed (geology)
In geology, a bed is a layer of sediment, sedimentary rock, or volcanic rock "bounded above and below by more or less well-defined bedding surfaces". A bedding surface or bedding plane is respectively a curved surface or plane that visibly separates each successive bed (of the same or different lithology) from the preceding or following bed. In cross sections, bedding surfaces or planes are often called bedding contacts. Within conformable successions, each bedding surface acted as the depositional surface for the accumulation of younger sediment.
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