Sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

s deposited into

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s that have come from

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s are called glaciolacustrine deposits. These lakes include ice margin lakes or other types formed from glacial erosion or deposition. Sediments in the

bedload The term bed load or bedload describes particles in a flowing fluid (usually water) that are transported along the stream bed. Bed load is complementary to suspended load and wash load. Bed load moves by rolling, sliding, and/or saltating (hopp ...

and

suspended load The suspended load of a flow of fluid, such as a river, is the portion of its sediment uplifted by the fluid's flow in the process of sediment transportation. It is kept suspended by the fluid's turbulence. The suspended load generally consists of ...

are carried into lakes and deposited. The bedload is deposited at the lake margin while the suspended load is deposited all over the lake bed. Glaciolacustrine deposits commonly form varves, which are annually deposited layers of silt and clay, where silt is deposited during the summer, and clay during the winter.

Bedload deposits

Sediments carried in the bedload of a stream, mostly sands and gravels, are deposited in

deltas A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rarel ...

that form at the edges of lakes. These deposits will only be found near the edges of the lake.

Suspended deposits

Sediments that are carried in the suspended load of a stream, commonly

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

s and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

s, are transported into the lake in suspension or by currents along the lake floor. These are the principal deposits during the winter because of lack of melting of the

so the stream has a reduced discharge therefore carrying less coarse material. These sediments normally consist of fine-grained

rhythmite A rhythmite consists of layers of sediment or sedimentary rock which are laid down with an obvious periodicity and regularity. They may be created by annual processes such as seasonally varying deposits reflecting variations in the runoff cycle, b ...

s that are laid down in layers known as

varve A varve is an annual layer of sediment or sedimentary rock. The word 'varve' derives from the Swedish word ''varv'' whose meanings and connotations include 'revolution', 'in layers', and 'circle'. The term first appeared as ''Hvarfig lera'' (var ...

s or varvites. A varve represent an annual deposit of silt and clay. Sedimentation in deltas also occurs in rhythmic patterns as in the lake deposits, but they are thicker and contain coarse-grained materials instead of just silt and clay. As the varves get closer to the shoreline the clay layer will stay relatively the same thickness, but there will be an increase in thickness of the silt layer.

References

*Easterbrook, D. J. (1999). Surface Process and Landforms 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall. Rivers Sediments Glaciers {{glaciology-stub

Bedload deposits

Suspended deposits

See also

References