Nabila Prihandina Purwanto | Geophysics 2015

Sedimentology and Stratigraphy HW 01

1)

Photo Type of rock Colour Location found Commercial

application
Conglomerate Grey In a river Used in
construction
industries.

Sand Light grey At home For cat litter,

cement,
sandpaper, mold
for metals.

Oxidized sand Red, orange Cepu For building and

stone paving
materials,
artistic purposes
(making
ornaments or
statues).

2) Why sediments or sedimentary rocks have different colours?

Sediments or sedimentary rocks have different colours due to their dispositional

environment, for example: black/dark grey sediments indicates that there are organic carbon/iron
present in the sediments, this means that the dispositional environment of the sedimentary
rocks/sediments might be found in quite marine waters, deep lakes and estuaries because organic
carbon requires anoxic (lack of oxygen) environmental conditions to develop, while red coloured
sediments means that it has a high presence of iron oxides due to its well oxygenated
environment during its disposition (river channels, flood plains, shallow marines). And lastly
green sediments indicates the presence of iron too but however is dispositioned in oxygen-
deficient environment which reduces the iron state (commonly in marine environments).

3) What are the main sedimentary processes?

a. Weathering The process of rocks breaking down due to water and air, which consists
of two processes: fragmentation (mechanical weathering) and decay (chemical
weathering).
b. Erosion The process of the movement of weathering products from one place to
another by the action of wind, ice, water, gravity.
c. Transportation completes erosion, this is movement of the eroded materials/sediments
d. Deposition when the energy of transportation becomes too low, the sediment will
become deposited which are added to landforms/land masses
e. Burial/preservation the burial of additional sediments on top to become sedimentary
rocks.
f. Lithification a process which turns sediments into sedimentary rocks. Sediments will
undergo compaction and cementation. Compaction occurs when the weight of the
additional materials on top increases. During the compaction process, the grains are
forced to be packed closer, reducing pore space. Some of these sediments carries water
with mineral components. Mineral components in sediments will later causes precipitate
in the pore spaces and causes cementations that can bind individual particles/grain
together resulting a solid sedimentary rock.

Reference list:

Color Interpretations From Sedimentary Rocks. (2000, October 26). Retrieved September 05,
2017, from http://csmgeo.csm.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/SedRx/color.html

Nelson, S. (2015, September 15). Sedimentary Rocks. Retrieved September 05, 2017, from
http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens1110/sedrx.htm