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ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY
L6 -

CIVE 430
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
SUMMER 2013

Grand Canyon-Arizona

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Layered Sandstones

TRANSPORT AGENTS
Water (streams, rivers, sea
currents)
Wind and Glaciers
Mass Wasting Gravity

GLACIER

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TRANSPORT AGENTS

GLACIER

Depositional Environments
Continental
Dominated by Water Action
Fluvial-->Rivers
Lacustrine-->Lakes
Glacial-->Glaciers

Dominated by Wind Action (Eolian)

Deserts
Alluvial Fan

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Sediment Types
CLASTIC or DETRITAL = Fragments of Older
Rocks
CHEMICAL= Dissolved, Transported &
Precipitated Chemically

CHEMICAL

CLASTIC

CLASTIC SEDIMENTS

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CLASTIC SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

CLASTIC SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

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CONGLOMERATE

Gravel and Conglomerate

(Texture)

Sandy Conglomerate

Muddy Conglomerate

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SANDSTONE

SANDSTONE

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Sands and Sandstone

(Detrital Mineral Grains)

A very large number of different minerals may

occur in sands and in sandstone. The most
common minerals are:

(1) Quartz
(2) Feldspar
(3) Mica

Sands and Sandstone

(Detrital Mineral Grains)

Quartz: is a very common mineral that is found as

grains in sandstone.
It is a very stable mineral that is resistant to
chemical breakdown at the earths surface.
Grains of quartz may be broken and abraded
during transport, but with a hardness of 7 on the
Mohs Scale, quartz grains remain intact over long
distances and long periods of transport.

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Sands and Sandstone

(Detrital Mineral Grains)
Feldspar: Very common in igneous rocks and is
usually the product of weathering of igneous rocks.
Feldspar is susceptible to chemical alteration during
weathering, and being softer than quartz, tends to be
abraded and broken up during transport.
Feldspar are thus commonly found only in places where the
chemical weathering of rocks has not been so intense and the
transport distance is short.

Sands and Sandstone

(Detrital Mineral Grains)
Mica: The two most common mica minerals,
muscovite and biotite, are relatively abundant as
detrital grains in sandstone
Mica grains have a platy shape that distinguish them in
hand specimens and under the microscope.

Muscovite

Biotite

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Lithification of Clay
CLAY

Lithification
SHALE

SHALE (ANCIENT MUDSTONE)

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WIND TRANSPORTED

SAND DUNES

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SAND DUNES - SANDSTONES

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

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Marine Environment
The deep seas which cover most of the globe are
floored by oceanic crust. On average the water depth
is about 4000 meters.

DEPOSITIONAL FEATURES

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EFFECT OF TRANSPORT

CARBONATE SEDIMENTS
Skeletal fragments: in carbonate sediments are
whole or broken pieces of the hard body parts of
organisms which have calcium carbonate minerals
as part of their structure.
Corals: some of the largest biogenic calcium
carbonate structures are built by corals.
Algae: and microbial organisms are an important
source of biogenic carbonate and are the most
important contributors of fine-grained sediment in
many carbonate environments.

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Biogenic Carbonates
(Skeletal Remains)
Molluscs

Crinoid

Foraminefera

Carbonate Sands

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Carbonate Sands

Carbonate Sands

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DEPOSITIONAL FEATURES
CORAL REEFS

Biogenic Carbonates
(Corals)

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Biogenic Carbonates
(Corals)

Biogenic Carbonates
(Corals)

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CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL

SEDIMENTS

Calcareous sediment

LIMESTONE

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LIMESTONE

Evaporites

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Evaporites

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