Just as literature students develop the craft of analyzing the structure of a story, so do geologists analyze the structures of sediments and the stories that they tell. The internal architecture of sand bodies is endlessly varied, fascinatingly complex, and, if we can only figure out what it’s trying to tell us, hugely informative. Revealed are sagas of currents, ancient and modern, of rivers and beaches, barrier islands, deltas and sand bars that sculpt the earth’s surface today or did so hundreds of millions of years ago.
. These are truly spectacular, and I have reproduced below an image of the beautiful bedforms in a point bar.
And, for animated excitement, go to Dave Rubin and Carissa Carter’s page at the USGS where they have numerous videos of extraordinary computer-modelled sedimentary structures in action - the whole site is worth spending some time on, but I’ve always been entranced by the animations.
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