A multivariate statistical strategy employing cluster analysis, ordination, and gradient analysis was used to determine the depositional environment of Barataria Bay, Louisiana. Cluster analysis of sediments suggests the existence of five sedimentary facies: (1) beach sand, (2) foreshore sand, (3) silty channel sand, (4) silty channel-margin sand, and (5) organic silt and mud. Ordination was used to depict the gradational relations among individual samples and among facies defined by cluster analysis. Gradient analysis suggests a wide range of environmental conditions operating within the bay and substantiates Klovan's factor analysis.

Gradient analysis shows that ordination extracts, successively with each axis, the most variable combination of the original variates. The ordination coordinates become new objectively created variables which are efficient measures of the original grain-size curve.

This multivariate statistical approach to sedimentary environmental analysis may prove useful for partitioning other sediment samples into facies and for examining the interaction between these facies and their environment of deposition.

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