Lamination (geology)

It can occur in many different types of sedimentary rock, from coarse sandstone to fine shales, mudstones or in evaporites.

Because lamination is a small structure, it is easily destroyed by bioturbation (the activity of burrowing organisms) shortly after deposition.

Examples of sedimentary environments are deep marine (at the seafloor) or lacustrine (at the bottom of a lake), or mudflats, where the tide creates cyclic differences in sediment supply.

Quaternary varves are used in stratigraphy and palaeoclimatology to reconstruct climate changes during the last few hundred thousand years.

Lamination in sandstone is often formed in a coastal environment, where wave energy causes a separation between grains of different sizes.

Lamination in a piece of travertine . In this case the layering was caused by seasonal differences in sediment supply. This rock was part of the Roman aqueduct of Mons / Montauroux – Fréjus and was most probably derived from the karst area in the vicinity.