Can a braided fluvial create thick relatively continuous siltstone beds?

Question

I am attempting to interpret an outcrop I went to. I suggested it was created by a braided fluvial. The one thing I cannot explain are prominent alternating siltstone beds with the sandstone beds. There are smaller lenses of silstone that I can suggest are abandoned channel fill, but I do have other siltstone beds about 0.2 – 0.5 m thick and seem pretty continuous (laterally continuous up to ~ 10-15 m as far as I can see).

Michael Walsby · Answer

Braided channels are usually found in estuaries. Estuaries are usually on the coast. That being the case, it seems possible that now and again a high tide brought in some sand which covered the silt-filled channels, which then brought more silt, thus creating the layered structure you describe. If the site is now a long way from the coast, it doesn't follow that it always was.

Answered by Michael Walsby on November 6, 2020

Can a braided fluvial create thick relatively continuous siltstone beds?

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