SEDIMENT &

SEDIMENTARY
ROCKS
EG208 PHYSICAL GEOLOGY: TOPIC 4 PART 3

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
■ Know why sedimentary rocks are important and valuable in
general.
■ Using the rock cycle, explain how sediment is formed and may
become a sedimentary rock.
■ Describe how the 4 main types of sedimentary rocks are
classified.
■ Define detrital sediment and know how detrital sedimentary
rocks are classified and identified.
■ Explain how chemical sedimentary rocks are formed and give
several examples.
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Fundamental of Rock Type
 Igneous Rocks:
– form when magma
solidified

 Sedimentary Rocks:
– form when sediment
becomes cemented into
solid rock

 Metamorphic rocks:
– form when heat,
pressure, or hot water
alter a rock
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Sedimentary Rocks
■ Generally, made from older rocks
■ Make up only ~5% of Earth’s crust,
■ Make up 75% of all rocks exposed at the
surface

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Why study Sedimentary Rocks
■ Reflect physical and chemical
characteristics of source environments
■ Contain direct and indirect evidence of
life
■ Can be interpreted to recreate Earth
history
■ May contain important minerals
■ Source of “fossil fuels”

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Why study Sedimentary Rocks
■ Sedimentary Rocks Preserve the Evidence of Past Environment

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Sedimentary Rocks Types
■ Clastic – broken down rocks (clasts)
– Ex.: sandstone

■ Chemical – directly precipitates out of

water
– Ex.: rock salt

■ Biogenic (biochemical & organic) –

remains of living organisms
– Ex.: limestone, chalk, coal

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Clastic Sediments & Sedimentary Rocks
■ The formation of a clastic sediment and sedimentary rocks involves five
processes:
#1&2

#3
#4
#5

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1. Weathering
■ Breaks down a pre-existing rock
– Physical/ mechanical
– Chemical
■ Turns rock into sediment Physica
– Gravel, sand, silt, clay l

Chemica 10
2. Erosion
■ Processes  act together to lower
the surface of the earth.
■ Begins the transportation process by
 moving the weathered products
from their original location.
■ This can take place by gravity (mass
movement events like landslides or
rock falls),
■ Sediment carried by
– running water
– wind
– moving ice.
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3. Transportation
■ Sediment can be transported by:
– sliding down slopes
– picked up by the wind,
– being carried by running water
(streams, rivers) Sorted?
– Being carried ocean currents.
■ The distance (transported) & the
energy (transporting)  tell us
about the mode of transportation.
■ Indicator of distance travel:
– Sorting
– Rounding
Rounded 12
 3. Transportation cont.
■ When sediment is transported &
deposited clues to the mode of
transport and deposition.
■ For example if the mode of transport is
by sliding down a slope,
– the deposits are generally chaotic in
nature
– show a wide variety of particle
sizes.
– grain size and the interrelationship
between grain size  resulting
sediment texture.
■ Texture = indicator of distance
– Sorting
– Rounding 13
 1) Sorting
■ Sorting: the degree of uniformity of grain size.
■ The size sorting classify as: well sorted to poorly sorted.
■ High energy currents  carry larger fragments.
■ Energy decreases  heavier particles deposited; lighter fragments continue to be transported.
■ The longer a sediment is transported, the more sorted it becomes

Short distance Long

distance

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 Sorting

Well-sorted Sandstone Poorly-sorted

Conglomerate

 Well-sorted refers to sediment or rocks where all particles are about the same size; where as
poorly-sorted samples have a variety of grain sizes.

 Overall, sorting is better in finer-grained samples and in sediment that has been transported a
 2) Rounding
■ During the transportation  grains may be reduced in size due to abrasion.
■ Random abrasion results  rounding off of the sharp corners and edges of grains.
■ Rounding of grains  clues on amount of time a sediment has been transported
■ The longer a sediment is transported, the rounder it gets

Short distance Long distance

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 Roundness

Roundness is a measure of surface irregularity and refers to whether or

not the constituent grains have sharp corners.
 Sphericity

Sphericity indicates how closely the grains approach a state where all
three dimensions (length, width, and height) are the same.
 Distance Traveled?
Think: roundness?
Distance Traveled?

Think: roundness? sorting?

Distance Traveled?

Think: roundness? sorting?

4. Deposition
■ Sediment is deposited  energy of the transporting medium becomes too low to
continue the transport process  sediment will fall out and become deposited.
■ The final sediment reflects the energy of the transporting agent.
– Water, wind, ice etc.
■ Result: layering of sediment by any natural agent

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4. Deposition cont.
■ Particle Size &
Depositional Environment
■ Large particles deposited
in higher energy
environments
– Gravel - need fast
moving water,
glaciers
– Sand - wind, wave
action (beaches),
rivers
– Silt & Clay - lakes,
swamp, deep oceans

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5. Lithification (Diagenesis)
■ Lithification: process when loose turn into sed. rocks. Combination of compaction &
cementation
■ Compaction: occurs as the weight of the overlying material increases  forces the
grains closer together, reducing pore space and eliminating water from pores.
■ Cementation: pore spaces fill with ions that precipitate from water  bind the
individual particles together.

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Classification of Sed. Rocks
■ Clastic sedimentary particles and sedimentary rocks are classified in terms of grain size and
shape.
Name of Loose
Size range Consolidated rocks
particle sediment
>256 mm Boulder
Conglomerate or Breccia
64 – 256 mm Cobble Gravel
(depends on rounding)
2 – 64mm Pebble
1/16 – 2mm Sand Sand Sandstone
1/256 – 1/16 mm Silt Silt Siltstone
<1/256 mm Clay Clay Claystone/ shale/mudstone

■ In general, the coarser sediment left behind by the transportation process.

■ Coarse sediment  found closer to its source and fine-grained sediment  found farther from
the source.
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From Sediments to Rocks
■ sediment + compression + time = rock

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Types of Clastic Sedimentary Rocks
■ Various clastic sedimentary rocks that result from
lithification of sediment.
1. Conglomerates and Breccias
2. Sandstone
3. Fine-grained rocks

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1) Conglomerate and Breccias
■ Conglomerate and Breccia  rocks
contain abundance of coarse-grained Conglomerate is a
clasts (pebbles, cobbles, or boulders). siliciclastic sedimentary
rock made up of at least
■ Conglomerate  coarse-grained 30% gravel size particles.
clasts, well rounded, indicating spent
considerable time in the
transportation process  deposited in
a high energy environment (moving
river).
■ Breccia  the coarse-grained clasts Breccia is a
are very angular, indicating the clasts conglomerate in
which most clasts are
spent little time in the transportation distinctively angular.
cycle.

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1) Conglomerate and Breccias cont.

An outcrop of a poorly sorted conglomerate. Note the Breccia is characterized by coarse, angular
rounding of cobbles, which vary in composition and fragments. The cement in this rock is colored by
size. The cement in this rock is also colored by hematite. The wide black and white bars on the
hematite. Long scale bar is 10 centimeters; short bars scale are 1 centimeter long; the small divisions
are 1 centimeter.  are 1 millimeter. Note that most grains exceed 2
millimeters
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2) Sandstone
■ Sandstone is made of sand-sized particles  forms by
cementation of grain size in many different depositional
settings.
■ Texture and composition permit historic of transportation,
depositional cycle and determination of the source.
■ Quartz  dominant mineral in sandstones.
■ Other varieties:
– Quartz arenite – is nearly 100% quartz grains.
– Arkose contains abundant feldspar.
– Lithic sandstone, the grains are mostly small rock
fragments.
– Wacke - sandstone that contains more than 15% mud (silt
and clay sized grains)
■ Sandstones  most common types of sedimentary rocks.
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 2) Sandstone cont.
A B C

Types of sandstone. ( A ) Quartz sandstone; more than 90% of the grains are quartz. ( B ) Arkose; the grains are mostly
feldspar and quartz. ( C ) Graywacke; the grains are surrounded by dark, fine-grained matrix. (Small scale divisions are 1
millimeter; most of the sand grains are about 1 millimeter in diameter.)  Photos by David McGeary 31
3) Fine-Grains Rocks
■ Rocks consisting of fine-grained silt and clay are called
shale, siltstone, claystone, and mudstone.
■ Shale is composed of clay sized particles and that tends to
break into thin flat fragments (called fissility).
■ Siltstone is one variety that consists of silt-sized
fragments.
■ Mudstone  similar to a shale but does not break into thin
flat fragments.
■ Organic-rich shales are the source of petroleum.
■ Shale accumulate on lake bottoms, ends of rivers in deltas,
on river flood plains, and on quiet parts of the deep-ocean
floor.
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 3) Fine-Grains Rocks cont.
A B
• (A) An outcrop of shale from Hudson
Valley in New York. This fine-grained
rock tends to split into very thin layers.
• (B) Shale pieces very fine grain (scale in
centimeters), very thin layers
(laminations) on the edge of the large
piece, and tendency to break into small,
flat pieces (fissility). 

Lithification of shale from the compaction and

cementation of wet mud.
• (A) Randomly oriented silt and clay particles in
wet mud.
• (B) Particles reorient, water is lost, and pore
space decreases during compaction caused by
the weight of new sediment deposited on top of
the wet mud.
• (C) Splitting surfaces in cemented shale form
parallel to the oriented mineral grains.
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 Siltstone

Siltstone is a siliciclastic sedimentary rock made up of silt

size particles.
 Claystone

Claystone is a siliciclastic sedimentary rock made up of

clay size particles.
 Mudstone

A dark sedimentary rock formed from consolidated mud

and lacking the laminations of shale
Chemical Sed. Rocks
■ Chemical sedimentary rocks are formed of ions taken into solution by
chemical weathering of parent material.
■ Many have crystalline texture of interlocking mineral grains.
■ These rocks are classified based on their mineral composition.

Texture Composition Rock Name

 Varies  calcite (CaCO3)  *Limestone
 crystalline  dolomite [CaMg (CO3)2]  **Dolostone
 crystalline  Rock gypsum
 crystalline  gypsum (CaSo4, 2H2O) (Evaporite)
 crystalline  Rock salt (Evaporites)
 halite (NaCl)  Chert
* most limestone is biochemical
 Silica (SiO2)** dolostone is chemically altered limestone 37
1) Limestone
■ Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed
mostly of calcite (CaCO3)
■ Limestones are precipitated either by the
actions of organisms or directly as the result of
inorganic processes.
■ Thus, the two major types of limestone can be
classified as either Biochemical limestone – carbonate mud
a. biochemical (precipitated through the
actions of organisms, formed on
continental shelves in warm, shallow
seawater)e.g: corbonate mud
b. inorganic limestone (precipitated
directly as the result of inorganic
processes) e.g: oolitic limestone

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Inorganic limestone: oolitic limestone
2) Dolostone
■ Limestone that have been
chemically modified by Mg-rich
fluids flowing through the rock are
converted to dolostones.
■ CaCO3 is recrystallized to a new
mineral dolomite CaMg(CO3)2

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3) Evaporites
■ Formed by evaporation of sea water or lake water.
■ Produces halite (salt) and gypsum deposits by chemical precipitation
■ This can occur in:
– lakes that have no outlets (like the Great Salt Lake) or
– restricted ocean basins (Mediterranean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico).

Salt Salt deposit Gypsum 40

4) Chemical Chert A

■ Groundwater flowing through rock can

precipitate SiO2 to replace present.
■ This produces a non-biogenic chert.
■ Many varsities of such chert that are
given different names depending on
their attributes. B
■ For example:
– Flint – Black or gray from organic
matter.
– Jasper – Red or yellow from Fe
oxides.
– Petrified wood – Wood grain
preserved by silica.
 (A) Chert nodules in limestone near Bluefield, West Virginia.
– Agate – Concentrically layered  (B) Bedded chert from he coast ranges, California.
rings 41
 Chemical Sedimentary Rocks
rock salt rock limestone travertine chert
gypsum

micrite dolostone
Biochemical & Organic Sed. Rocks
■ Biochemical and organic sedimentary rocks are those derived
from living organisms.
■ When the organism dies, the remains can accumulate to
become sediment or sedimentary rock.
■ Among the types of rock produced by this process are:
1. Biochemical limestone
2. Biochemical chert
3. Coal

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1) Biochemical Limestone
■ Calcite (CaCO3) is precipitated by
organisms to form a shell or other skeletal
Coquina
structure.
■ Accumulation of these skeletal remains
results in a limestone.
■ Limestones are very common sedimentary
rocks.
■ Limestone composed of skeletal fragments
of marine invertebrates is quite common.
– E.g. coquina and fossiliferous limestone
Fossiliferous
■ Coquina contains much pore space, but limestone
pores of fossiliferous limestone are filled
with cement and mud.
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2) Biochemical Chert
■ Formed when the siliceous
skeletons of marine plankton
are dissolved during diagenesis
 silica being precipitated
from the resulting solution
■ Tiny silica secreting planktonic
organism (Radiolaria and
Diatoms)  accumulate on the
sea floor and recrystallize 
form biochemical chert.

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3) Coal
■ Coal is an organic rock made
from organic carbon that is
the remains of fossil plant
matter.
■ It accumulates in lush tropical
wetland settings and requires
deposition in absence of
oxygen.
■ It is high in carbon and can
easily be burned to obtain
energy.

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 Biogenic Sedimentary Rocks
skeletal limestone
coal chalk

coquina