Atlas and glossary of primary sedimentary structures / Атлас и словарь основных осадочных структур

Inadequate observation of sedimentary structures has been responsible for incorrect interpretation of the order of superposition in deformed beds and this has led, in turn, to gross errors in stratigraphy and structure. Failure to recognize and utilize those structures which indicate direction of current flow has also led to incorrect, or at least incomplete, understanding of basin development.

We believe, therefore, that there is need for a work which constitutes a field guide to the study of these structures - a book in which these structures, so difficult to describe or define in words, are adequately recorded in pictures. As in paleontology, where good illustrations are fundamental and without which identification of fossils is impossible, so also only from proper illustrations can the variety and variability of most sedimentary structures be comprehended.

The concept of an atlas of geological photographs is not new. There are, for example, the several atlases on microfacies, published by BRILL, of which "Fazies und Mikrofauna der Gesteine der Bayerischen Alpen" by H. HAGN was the first. These are, however, restricted to microphotographs and of interest therefore, primarily to sedimentary petrographers. The Soviets have also published several works consisting of pictures of geological subjects -

outcrops, cores, and thin sections. Most of these have been restricted to particular strata from a particular region, such as " Atlas of Lithogenic Types of CoalBearing Deposits of the Middle Carboniferous of the Donetz Basin" by BOTVINKINA and others, or of photomicrographs similarly restricted such as KHVOROVA'S "Atlas of Middle and Upper Carboniferous Carbonate Rocks of the Russian Platform" or rather specialized in content such as Preface TRUSHKovA and KUKHARENKO'S "Atlas of Placer Minerals." The most comprehensive atlas is the "Atlas of Textures and Structures of Sedimentary Rocks" edited by A. V. KHABAKOV (1962). Our Atlas is an outgrowth of our work on "Paleocurrents and Basin Analysis," a book in which directional sedimentary structures are described and interpreted with special reference to the evolution of sedimentary basins. That work, however, contains minimal photographic material - just enough to give the reader some concept of the sedimentary structures described. <...>