Platform-Margin, Slope, and Basinal Carbonate Depositional Environments
Robert G. Loucks, Charles Kerans, Xavier Janson
Bureau of Economic Geology
 
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Slope Depositional Environments

Slope Types
 
Carbonate slopes can be classified into two basic types (McIlreath and James, 1978):
 
Depositional margin: No strong break in slope; sediments form a continuum down the slope.
Diagrammatic sketch of depositional slope modified from McIlreath and James (1978).
 

By-pass margin: There is a strong break in slope; sediments bypass a portion of the slope.
Diagrammatic sketch of a bypass slope modified from McIlreath and James (1978).
 
 
 
Slope Processes
 
Gravity-flow processes within a background of suspension deposits dominate slope and toe-of-slope sedimentation. Modified diagram by Enos and Moore (1983) presents the basic gravity-flow types and associated deposits encountered in this environment. Click on names to see descriptions of deposits.
 

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