physical, chemical, and biological aspects of a sedimentary bed and the lateral change within sequences of beds of the same geologic age. Sedimentary rocks can be formed only where sediments are deposited long enough to become compacted and cemented into hard beds or strata. Sedimentation commonly occurs in areas where the sediment lies undisturbed for many years in sedimentary basins. Whereas some such basins are small, others occupy thousands of square kilometres and usually have within them several different local depositional environments. Physical, chemical, and biological factors influence these environments, and the conditions that they produce largely determine the nature of the sediments that accumulate. Several different local (sedimentary) environments may thus exist side by side within a basin as conditions change laterally; the sedimentary rocks that ultimately are produced there can be related to these depositional environments. These different but contemporaneous and juxtaposed sedimentary rocks are known as sedimentary facies, a term that was first used by the Swiss geologist Amanz Gressly (Gressly, Amanz) in 1838.

Sedimentary facies are either terrigenous, resulting from the accumulation of particles eroded from older rocks and transported to the depositional site; biogenic, representing accumulations of whole or fragmented shells and other hard parts of organisms; or chemical, representing inorganic precipitation of material from solution. As conditions change with time, so different depositional sites may change their shapes and characteristics. Each facies thus has a three-dimensional configuration and may in time shift its position.

There are several ways of describing or designating sedimentary facies. By noting the prime physical (or lithological) characteristics, one is able to recognize lithofacies. The biological (or more correctly, paleontological) attributes—the fossils—define biofacies. Both are the direct result of the depositional history of the basin. By ascribing modes of origin to different facies (i.e., interpreting the lithofacies or biofacies) one can visualize a genetic system of facies. It is also common to speak of alluvial facies, bar facies, or reef facies, using the environment as a criterion. This may lead to confusion when revisions of interpretation have to be made because of new or more accurate information about the rocks themselves.

Just as there are regular associations of different local environments in modern sedimentary basins, associations of facies also are known to follow similar patterns in the stratigraphic column. A common example of the latter is that of regular lithofacies and biofacies successions being formed between the edge, or shoreline, of a water-filled basin and the deeper water at its middle. Coarse sediment gives way to finer sediment in the deepening water. Changes in sea level as time passes are a common cause of successive changes in the stratigraphic column. As sea level rises and the sea spreads across what was land, shallow-water sediments are laid down in the newest area to receive such material while areas that were shallow are now deeper and receive finer, or otherwise different, sediments. As the sea advances inland, the belts of sedimentation follow and the retreat of the sea causes the belts to move back offshore.

Johannes Walther, a German geologist, noted in 1894 that the vertical facies sequence in a sedimentary basin undergoing expansion and deepening so that the sea transgresses the land surface (or the reverse, a regression) is the same as the horizontal sequence. This has enabled geologists, knowing the pattern of facies at the surface, to predict accurately what may also be found at depth within a sedimentary basin. It is clear, however, that Walther's observation only applies where there is no major break (i.e., an erosional interval) in the continuity of the succession.

From studies of facies relationships to one another it has become recognized that the gradational, sharp, or eroded contacts between these rock bodies are also of significance in finding the mode of origin. It is also apparent that many facies follow one another in time and space in a repetitive way. A vertical pattern, for example, may be found in a borehole sunk vertically through a sequence of facies. This has been observed in many alluvial sequences and in the coal-bearing series of Carboniferous, Permian, and other systems. Facies under clay, coal, shale, and sandstone may be repeated many times and are called cyclothems. Cyclic or rhythmic sedimentation has been recorded in different rocks in many parts of the world and may arise in many ways; however, re-examination of many successions originally described as cyclic shows that this phenomenon is not as common or as constant as had been believed.

Today it is recognized that facies associations and distribution depend upon interrelated controls. The most important include sedimentary processes, sediment supply, climate, tectonics (earth movements), sea level changes, biological activity, water chemistry, and volcanic activity. Of these the environment of deposition (climate) and tectonic activity are paramount as they may ultimately regulate the other factors.

In industries that exploit earth resources such as fossil fuels, facies (or sedimentary basin) analysis is important in research. It may lead to predictions about where coal, petroleum, natural gas, or other sedimentary materials may be found. Apart from examination of rock specimens, this kind of analysis may also rely heavily upon the geophysical properties of the rocks, such as their densities and electrical magnetic and radioactive properties. Using information about these obtained in boreholes, rapid facies recognition and correlation may be made and the economically important resources may be located.