Sedimentation Rates and Organic Matter in Various Depositional Environments

It has become common in the sedimentological literature to distinguish between (linear) sedimentation rates, SR (sediment thickness per unit time), and accumulation rates, AR (solid sediment mass per unit area and time). This discrimination is important when sediments of different porosities are compared, and it is indispensable for any kind of sediment budget. In papers dealing with relatively young sediments of high porosity, for example sediment cores recovered by scientific ocean drilling, mostly accumulation rates are used (e.g., Van Andel 1983; Ehrmann and Thiede 1985).