Publication Date:
2018-02-06
Description:
The sedimentary system involves
processes that weather rocks and reduce
them to soluble and fine-grained
particulate components that can be
transported. deposited, and transformed
back into rock. !Jost of the processes can
be observed today, but the present is an
unusual episode in our planet's history.
We live in a brief warm interglacial epi sode
in an interval usually characterized
by large mid-and high-latitude icc sheets
and a much lower sea level. To complicate
matters further, few measurements
of process rates were made before the significant
impacts of agriculture and the
industrial revolution altered them. Consequently,
the rates at which different
processes operate over most of geologic
time arc not well known. The objective of
modeling sedimentary systems is to simplify
these processes so that they can be
described in mathematical terms. Successful
models predict the results of weathering.
erosion, transport, depositional
and diagenetic processes and allow us to
determine process rates from ancient deposits.
Modeling can also suggest the
kinds of geologic information that can be
used for its validation.
Type:
Article
,
PeerReviewed
Format:
text
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