Flysch

Flysch is a thick sequence of deep-marine sedimentary rocks deposited along an advancing mountain belt, commonly by turbidity currents in a foreland basin.

Turbidity current: A sediment-laden underwater flow that moves downslope under gravity and deposits sediment as it slows. Repeated turbidity currents commonly build flysch's layered sandstone and mudstone sequences.
Turbidite: A sedimentary deposit produced by a turbidity current, often showing graded bedding and layered structures. Turbidites are the characteristic event beds that compose many flysch successions.
Bernhard Studer: A Swiss geologist who studied the Alps and helped establish flysch as a geological term. Studer's nineteenth-century work brought the Alpine rock succession into geological discussion.
Alpine flysch: Deep-marine sedimentary successions associated with the European Alps. These classic deposits gave flysch its geological name and early prominence.
Bouma sequence: An idealized vertical sequence of sedimentary structures formed by a waning turbidity current. Its graded layers can record individual events within flysch deposits.
Sandstone: A clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized mineral or rock fragments. Flysch commonly includes sandstone beds deposited by sediment-laden flows.
Alps: A major mountain range in Europe formed through the collision of the African and Eurasian plates. The term flysch originated in descriptions of sedimentary successions in the Alps.
Carpathian Flysch Belt: A belt of Cretaceous and Paleogene deep-marine sediments along the northern Carpathians. Its extensive sedimentary units record basin development along a major mountain arc.
Foreland basin: A sedimentary basin formed by the bending of continental crust under the load of an adjacent mountain belt. Flysch commonly accumulates in the deep-water part of this mountain-front basin.
Shale: A fine-grained sedimentary rock that splits readily along thin layers. Quiet intervals between flow events often leave mud that later becomes shale.

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