What is a sedimentary rock?

 The word sedimentary comes from the Latin

word sedimentum, which means “settling.”
 Sedimentary rocks are products of
mechanical and chemical weathering
 They account for about 5 percent (by volume)
of Earth’s outer 10 miles
 Contain evidence of past environments

Provide information about sediment

transport
Often contain fossils
What is a sedimentary rock?
 Turning sediments into a rock?
 Diagenesis. Refers to processes that lithify
sediments or make them into a solid sedimentary
rock. It may occur at or very near surface, but
more commonly occurs after sediments are buried.
Weathering and Erosion of pre-existing rocks and minerals

Transportation
by
Water,ice, or wind

Deposition
(Sediment is laid down)

Compaction

Cementation
by silica or calcite

– development of more
stable minerals from less
stable ones
Recrystallization
- sediments are transformed
into solid rock by Compaction
Lithification and cementation
 Weathering and Erosion
 Weathering: The disintegration and decomposition of rock
at or near Earth’s surface.

 Erosion: The incorporation and transportation of material

by a mobile agent, such as water, wind, or ice.

 Transportation - round and well sorted

 Deposition- Sediments are deposited according to size

– Larger crystals are deposited first, smaller sediments are
deposited last.
 Diagenesis
 Compaction (welding): Process by which sediments are
squeezes together by the weight of overlying materials (pressure) driving out
water.
 Cementation:
 Solidification of sediments by the deposition of dissolved minerals in the tiny
spaces between the sedimentary particles.
 Cementing materials carried in solution in water
 Recrystallization - Development of more stable minerals from less
stable ones due to pressure, temperature changes
 Lithification- Squeezing out of fluid to make final solid rock

lithified rock
unconsolidated sediment
Texture of Sedimentary Rocks
•Origin of grains-mechanical origin:
coarse grain , chemical origin : fine
grain
•Size of grains-type of weathering, nature
of parent rock , duration of transportation
•Shape of grains-round, angular , smooth
•Packing of grains-loosely packed,
densely packed
 SORTING, SHAPE, SETTING

Sorting

Sphericity
Rounding

Depositional
Setting
CLASSIFICATION OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
 Two major textures are used in the classification of
sedimentary rocks
 Clastic
 Discrete fragments and particles
 All detrital rocks have a clastic texture

 Nonclastic
 Pattern of interlocking crystals
 May resemble an igneous rock
CLASTIC ROCKS–MADE OF CEMENTED
SEDIMENTS—ARE CLASSIFIED BY THEIR GRAIN SIZES.

 CONGLOMERATE
SANDSTONE
SHALE
CONGLOMERATE (WELDED TUFF)
Non-clastic rocks - classified by their mode
of formation form. Chemical or biochemical
precipitation-Limestone is made from calcite,
chert from quartz, and halite is rock salt.
HALITE
LIMESTONE
GYPSUM
CHALK
Organic sedimentary rocks - come from the
remains of organic matter.
• The most important of
these is coal. Anthracite
coal results from the
greatest pressure and
releases the most energy
when burned. Other
varieties are bituminous
and lignite. “Petrified”
(permineralized) wood is
another organic rock.
COAL
CLASSIFICATION OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
 Sedimentary rocks are classified according to the type
of material they are comprised of or rocks derived from
them;
 Divided into two major groups:

Detrital
Chemical
CLASSIFICATION OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
Classified into two groups according to the way
they form.
 Detrital Sedimentary Rocks:
 Made of broken fragments of preexisting rocks.
 Made of clay minerals and quartz.
 Grouped according to size of the sediments in the
rocks or clastic rocks.
 Examples are, Conglomerate, Sandstone, Shale
 Chemical Sedimentary Rocks:
 Consisting of material that was precipitated from
water by either inorganic or organic means.
 Examples: Limestone, rock salt, chert, flint, and
rock gypsum.
 About 90% of limestones are formed from
biochemical sediments (shells/skeletons).
IDENTIFICATION OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
 DETRITAL SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

•Rudaceous ( coarse grained, angular material)

•Argillaceous(shale, silt like particles)
•Arenaceous (fine grained material, like clay)
PARTICLE SIZE CLASSIFICATION
 sediments

gravel sand silt clay

sedimentary
rocks

conglomerate sandstone siltstone shale

 Sedimentary rocks
 Detrital sedimentary rocks

Shale & siltstone

 silt & clay-sized particles (mud, clay, silt)

 over 1/2 of all sedimentary rocks

 particles too small to identify w/ eye

 deposited in quiet (slow moving) water

- deep ocean & continental slope
- lakes
- floodplains (siltstone)
 forms slopes at surface

 raw material for brick, tile, pottery, china

SHALE CONTAINING PLANT REMAINS
 Sedimentary rocks
 Detrital sedimentary rocks

Sandstone
 composed of sand grains
 2nd most abundant sedimentary rock
 deposited by moderate currents:
- rivers & deltas
- beaches
- wind (sand dunes)
 mostly quartz & Feldspars(strong & chemically stable)
 Sedimentary rocks
 Detrital sedimentary rocks

Conglomerate
 composed mostly of gravel
pebbles to boulders
 poorly sorted
 deposited by strong, turbulent currents:
- big flooding rivers
- steep streams (near mountains)
- glaciers
 Sedimentary rocks
 Detrital sedimentary rocks

Breccia
 conglomerate with angular grains

 didn’t travel far

CHEMICAL SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
•Limestone
•Dolostone
•Chert
•Evaporites
•Coal
 LIMESTONE
Fossiliferous Limestone
 Most abundant chemical rock

 Composed of calcite carbonate

CaCO3

 Marine biochemical limestones

form as coral reefs, coquina
(broken shells), and chalk Coquina
(microscopic organisms)

 Inorganic limestones include

travertine and oolitic limestone
 SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
 Chemical sedimentary rocks

Organic rock of biochemical origin

 coquina (rock of shell fragments)

 CHEMICAL SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
 Dolostone
 Composed of calcite, magnesium carbonate Ca,MgCO3
 Typically formed secondarily from limestone
 Chert
 Made of microcrystalline quartz
 Varieties include flint , jasper and agate (banded form)
Banded Chert
 CHEMICAL SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
 Evaporites
 Evaporation triggers deposition of chemical
precipitates. water evaporates and dissolved material is
deposited
 Examples include rock salt and rock gypsum

Salt flats, Utah Death Valley, Calif.

 Sedimentary rocks
 Chemical sedimentary rocks

Coal
 buried and compacted plant material
 different kinds of coal, depending on formation process
Stages in coal formation
(in order)
•1. Plant material
•2. Peat
•3. Lignite
•4. Bituminous
SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES
 Useful for interpreting sedimentary environment
Strata: or beds, layers of similar sediment
(most characteristic of sedimentary rocks)
Lamina: thin layers (< 1cm)

Bedding planes separate strata

 Cross-bedding
 Graded beds

 Ripple marks

 Mud cracks

Fossil
Joints – generally, most important structures
for engineering structures in rock or assessing
ground water flow through rock formations
Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

1. Layers (bedding, or “strata”)

 deposited horizontally
Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

1. Layers (bedding, or “strata”)

 deposited horizontally
 each layer is unique
Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

1. Layers (bedding, or “strata”)

 deposited horizontally
 each layer is unique
 separated by bedding planes
 Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

2. Cross-bedding
 tilted bedding
Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

2. Cross-bedding
 tilted bedding
 commonly ancient sand dunes
 (Physical features)
2. Cross-bedding
 tilted bedding
 commonly ancient sand dunes
Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

3. Graded beds
 particles within a layer
gradually change:
 coarse at bottom
 fine at top
 Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

3. Graded beds
 particles within a layer
gradually change:
 coarse at bottom
 fine at top

 rapid deposition from

water w/ varying sed. sizes

Colorado River
Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

4. Ripple marks
 wavy surfaces to sand: current ripple marks
 Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

4. Ripple marks
 wavy surfaces to sand: current
ripple marks
 tell direction of current
Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

4. Ripple marks
 wavey surfaces to sand: current
ripple marks
 tell direction of current
 Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

4. Ripple marks
 wavy surfaces to sand: current
ripple marks
 tell direction of current
 Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

5. Mud cracks
 sediment alternatively
wet/dry
 Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

5. Mud cracks
 sediment alternatively
wet/dry

 shallow lakes,
desert basins
 Sedimentary structures (Physical features)

5. Mud cracks
 sediment alternatively
wet/dry

 shallow lakes,
desert basins

 flood plains
 FOSSILS: EVIDENCE OF PAST LIFE

 By definition, fossils are the traces or remains of

prehistoric life now preserved in rock

 Fossils are generally found in sediment or sedimentary

rock (rarely in metamorphic and never in igneous
rock)
FOSSILS: EVIDENCE OF PAST LIFE
 Geologically fossils are important for several reasons
Aid in interpretation of the geologic past
Serve as important time indicators

Allow for correlation of rocks from

different places
DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT IN LIMESTONE
 Systematic joints perturb every sedimentary rock
unit. This view shows a 1600 foot high exposure of
the Navajo Sandstone near Hildale, Utah.
 JOINTS
 Most cliffs are joint
controlled, by one, two, or
three sets of primary
regional systematic joints.
 These joints are often open
behind the cliff face, as
shown here (Coconino
Sandstone beneath
Monument Point, North
Rim of the Grand Canyon)