Class Test - Sedimentary

• Weathering
• Erosion
• Transportation
• Deposition
• Lithification (loose sediment transformed into solid rock)

Burial of sediment by more sediment

Overburden squeezes out air and water

Clasts press tightly together = compaction

Minerals (commonly quartz or calcite) form cement between clasts = cementation

Length of diameter of clasts making up the rock

Boulder, cobble, pebble, sand, silt, clay

Makeup of clasts within rock

Larger clasts (pebbles or larger) consist of rock fragments = aggregate of many mineral grains

Smaller clasts (sand or smaller) consist of individual mineral grains

Angularity = smooth or angular corners and edges of clasts

Sphericity = degree to which clast is equidimensional (i.e. resembles a sphere)

Degree to which clasts are the same size

Sediment all the same size

More than one grain size

In some rocks, the cement consists of silica (quartz), in others of calcite

Conglomerate

Breccia

Diamictite

Sandstone

Quartz sandstone

Arkose

Lithic sandstone

Wacke

Siltstone

• Shale (platy sheets)
• Mudstone (no platy sheets)