6/19/2017

ROCKS
L6 -
SEDIMENTARY
CIVE 330
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY

SUMMER 2017

GRAND CANYON-ARIZONA

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GRAND CANYON-ARIZONA

GRAND CANYON-ARIZONA

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Layered Sandstones

Layered Sandstones

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

GLACIER

TRANSPORT AGENTS

GLACIER

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

 Dominated by Wind Action

(Aeolian) Alluvial Fan

 Deserts

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

CLASTIC

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CLASTIC SEDIMENTS

CLASTIC SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

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CLASTIC SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

CONGLOMERATE

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Gravel and Conglomerate

(Texture)

Sandy Conglomerate Muddy Conglomerate

SANDSTONE

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SANDSTONE

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

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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 earth’s 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.

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.

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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

Lithification of Clay
CLAY Lithification

SHALE

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SHALE (ANCIENT MUDSTONE)

WIND TRANSPORTED

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SAND DUNES

SAND DUNES - SANDSTONES

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DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

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.

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DEPOSITIONAL FEATURES

EFFECT OF TRANSPORT

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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.

Biogenic Carbonates
(Skeletal Remains)

Molluscs Crinoid Foraminefera

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Carbonate Sands

Carbonate Sands

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Carbonate Sands

DEPOSITIONAL FEATURES
CORAL REEFS

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Biogenic Carbonates
(Corals)

Biogenic Carbonates
(Corals)

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Biogenic Carbonates
(Corals)

CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL

SEDIMENTS

Calcareous sediment

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LIMESTONE

LIMESTONE

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Evaporites

EVAPORITES

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