Phases of Sedimentation in Gulf Coastal Prairies of Louisiana

Abstract

The geology of the recent material of the Gulf Coastal Prairies of Louisiana resolves itself, primarily, into a study of its various phases of sedimentation, especially with respect to its environment phase. The homogeneity of sedimentation, in the area as a whole, seemingly ends with its indefinite products. It therefore becomes futile to assign to them definite time or structural limits. The gulf coast sediments and environments are more or less unstable, and if the latter change, the former must undergo alterations to tend toward conditions of greater stability. Some changes are sudden and erratic, others oscillate, but most of them occur slowly and in an orderly manner. The more characteristic environmental changes occurring in the humid Gulf Coastal Prairies of low relief are changes of the environmental types and changes within the type environments. Environment is the most important phase of sedimentation of the Gulf Coastal Prairies of Louisiana, and a better understanding and differentiation of its multiple changes and accompanying reactions of its sediments and facies organism will ultimately lead to the integration and subsequent correlation of the sequence of deposition of its material.