MOLASSE

thick association of continental and marine clastic sedimentary rocks that consists mainly of sandstones and shales formed as shore deposits. The depositional environments involved include beaches, lagoons, river channels, and backwater swamps. The sands are deposited on beaches and in river channels and eventually form shoestring bodies (thickness:width = 1:5) that are mainly calcareous or sideritic (iron carbonate-bearing) subgraywackes and protoquartzites. The shales are deposited in the lagoons and swamps and are mica-rich and red to gray in colour. In addition, thin beds of freshwater limestone and coal seams (called coal measures) are present. The deposits show repetitive bedding, and their characteristics stand in contradistinction to deepwater marine deposits called flysch.