Recent flume experiments with muddy suspensions have demonstrated that low-energy settings are not a prerequisite for the accumulation of muds and shales. Flocculation produces deposition-prone aggregates even in freshwater, and these floccules form bedload ripples at flow velocities that would also produce ripples in sandy sediments. Floccule ripples are crosslaminated but have a much higher water content (80-90 % by volume) than sand ripples and are thus subject to substantial compaction. Because of this, we must expect that original crosslaminae become severely flattened and are difficult to recognize in the rock record. Nonetheless, a survey of ancient shales has shown that certain intrinsic features of cross-lamination, such as basal downlap and top truncation of laminae, are still recognizable and allow identification of current-deposited muds. The example of the Cambrian Eau Claire Formation is used to illustrate how this approach can change our perception of the depositional setting of certain mudstone successions.

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Mudstone‐dominated lacustrine strata in the Pahrump Hills area of Gale Crater, Mars, have the most extensive data set of physical and geochemical observations yet collected. Although sparse by Earth standards, a source‐to‐sink portrayal of the sedimentary system that differs substantially from previous work has been extracted by integrating sedimentology, stratigraphy, mineral and elemental analyses, geochemical modelling, laboratory experiments and Earth analogues in a sequence‐stratigraphic and palaeogeographical framework. Approximately 3.5 Ga, these 15 m thick strata contain five facies that range from fine to coarse detrital mudstone with abundant sediment‐incorporative evaporite pseudomorphs. The section is dominated by first‐cycle grains of minimally weathered primary igneous minerals but with four distinct compositions. Bedding in the mudstones comprises planar‐parallel beds, current ripples and wave‐induced structures, with common and widespread truncation. The absence of primary desiccation and synaeresis cracks is probably due to minimal clay‐mineral content, as supported by laboratory experiments. Evaporite minerals formed on and within detrital muds shortly after accumulation by evapoconcentration and cooling. The succession contains 16 parasequences in five depositional sequences with all the sequence‐stratigraphic elements known from terrestrial strata. Two of the sequence boundaries are unconformities that record significant shifts in the behaviour and palaeogeographical configuration of the fluvio‐lacustrine system. This contrasts with the previous view that all facies are genetically related. Most of the variability in rock composition can be attributed to stratigraphic changes in provenance that integrate changing drainage basin configurations, type of exposed bedrock and changes in weathering regime. These strata are interpreted as evaporative lake deposits that accumulated in an underfilled lake basin with closed surface hydrography but through‐flowing groundwater. Lake waters were saline to hypersaline, and lake levels, shorelines and salinities fluctuated greatly at various temporal scales.

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Understanding how mud moves and deposits is essential for conceptualizing the dynamic nature of surface environments and their ancient counterparts. Experimental study has largely been pursued by civil engineers, using kaolinite as an active ingredient. Yet, applying their data to the physical comprehension of mudstone sedimentology is hampered by multiple flume configurations between labs, and data sets tailored to specific engineering needs. The need for a better grasp of underlying processes is acute, given recent flume studies that show that moving suspensions form large bedload floccules, migrating floccule ripples and bed accretion under currents capable of moving sand grains. To advance mudstone sedimentology, integrated study of suspended sediment concentration, salinity and bed shear stress on the deposition of floccules is crucial. Described here is a set of tightly controlled experiments that explored suspended sediment concentrations from 70 to 900 mg/l, freshwater, brackish and marine salinities, flow velocities in the 5 to 50 cm/s range (equivalent to 0.01 to 0.58 Pa bed shear), measured the size of in-flow and bedload floccules, and the critical velocity of sedimentation that marks the onset of sustained bedload accumulation. The critical velocity of sedimentation of kaolinite clays is in the 26 to 28 cm/s flow velocity range (0.22 to 0.25 Pa), appears insensitive to a wide range of suspended sediment concentrations and salinities, and coincides with the formation of sand-size bedload floccules. Further decrease of flow velocity/bed shear stress is accompanied by a steady increase in the size of bedload floccules. Large bedload floccules appear to form in the high-shear basal part of the flow, a phenomenon requiring further investigation. Better understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate mud deposition from moving suspensions is critical for more realistic assessments of the depositional conditions of mud and mudstones, as well as for refining predictive models for the flux of fine-grained sediments across the Earth's surface.