Geology question URGENT?

Question

On average, in a high energy enviroment, is the sediment well sorted or poorly sorted. Similarly, in low energy enviroment, is the sediement well sorted or poorly sorted. also can u give a couple of examples of each? Thanks alot!!

Answer 1

Love these quaternary environment questions!!

Okay, first, sorting refers to the aggregation of similar grain sizes.  Poorly sorted would be a gravely, silty, sandy, clay.  Well sorted would be a clean sand with grains all the same size.

Think of the action of sorting as a function of energy in the system in which the deposition occurs.  The higher the energy, the less likely you are to find smaller, ligher sediment components like clay, silt, and very fine sand.  An example of this depositional environment would be a shallow, rapidly moving stream.  On the other side of the graph, the lower the energy, the less power there will be available to move larger, heavier particles, allowing the smaller particles like the clays, silts, and fine sands to settle out.  An example of this environment might be the eddie pockets located along stream and river banks.

Hope this helps