FORMATION AND CLASSIFICATION

OF SEDIMENTS AND SEDIMENTARY

ROCK
 What are sediments ?
• The word Sedimentary comes from the Latin word sedimentum,
which means settling.
• All of the classic sedimentary rocks are formed from broken pieces
of other existing rocks that settle out of water or air. The broken
pieces are called sediments.
• All rocks are subject to weathering and breaks the rocks into
smaller pieces or sediments.
• The sediments that form by these actions are often carried to other
places by wind, running water or gravity.
• As these forces lose energy the sediments settle out of the air or
water. As the settling takes place, the rock fragments are graded by
size. The larger, heavier pieces settle out first. The smallest
fragments travel farther and settle out last.
• This process is called deposition.
 Sedimentation Environments'
• There are three major environments that
sedimentation can taken place
– Continental, Shelf sea and Deep sea
• Continental environments develop on land
areas such as desert, alluvial fans, lacustrine,
and glacial
• Lacustrine deposits are deposits accumulated
in still water like lakes.
 Environments cont..
• Shelf sea environments develop at shore of
sea
• Pebbles, Sand, mud and calcareous material
are accumulated here
• Wave action rounds rock particles in to
pebbles, wears down sand particles and leaves
ripple marks on the deposits.
 Environments cont..
• Shales may form from some distance from the
shore by depositing mud in calmer water.
• Deep see environments develop sediment
accumulations in vast area of ocean floor.
• Land derived fine mud lie on continental
slopes and have colours of blue red and green.
• Beyond 4km depth deposit called “Red Clay”
derived from Volcanic dust could be seen.
 Classification of sediments
Clastic or Chemical and
Detrital Sediments Biochemical
Broken in someware Mixed Disolved or remains
and transported and Sediments of
deposited plant and animal

Terrigeneous
Pyroclastic Epiclastic Precipitated Residues of
sediments Sediments sediments plant
Derived by
Particles coming from weathering
Volcanic euptions and erosion

precipitation
Direct through Evaporits
precipation plant and Animal
 Sediments cont..
• Clastic sediments
– Bolder, Cobel,Pebble Grawell,Sand Silt, Clay
Classified according to particle size
• Residues of plant and animal :
• Coal - 100% C
• Peat – 20% C -in the process of making coal
• Plant Borg Peat Coal
 Sediments cont..
• Evaporits
– Nacl
• Precipitation through plant and Animals
– Animals in the sea absorb CaCo3- in to the body
and form in to corals CaCo3 (Limestone)
• Direct precipitation
– CaCo3 and MgCo3 (Dolamite)
 Forming of Sedimentary Rocks..
• Lithification is the changing of sediments into rock. There
are two processes involved in this change. They are
compaction and cementation.
• Compaction occurs after the sediments have been
deposited. The weight of the sediments squeezes the
particles together. When more and more sediments are
deposited on top, the weight on the sediments below
increases. Waterborne sediments become so tightly
squeezed together that most of the water is pushed out.
• Cementation happens when dissolved minerals fill in the
spaces between the sediment particles. These liquid
minerals act as glue or cement to bind the sediments
together.
 Clastic Sedimentary Rocks

Sediment
Type particle size Texture Name of Rock
Clastic Pebble/ course Conglomerate
Fragments Breccia
Pyroclastic Volcanic course Agglomarate
fragments Breccia
(Volcanic Breccia)
Clastic sand medium Sandstone

Clastic silt fine Siltstone

(Marl)
Clastic Clay very fine Claystone /
Mudstone
(Shale)
Pyroclastic Volcanic ash very fine Tuff
 Sedimentary Rocks formed by other sediments

Sediment type Composition Texture Name of Rock

corse to fine
Chemical Calcite - CaCo3 Crystalline Limestone
visible
fragments of Fossiliferous
Bio Chemical Calcite - CaCo3 shells
microscopic Limestone
shells and
Bio Chemical Calcite - CaCo3 clay Chalk
corse to fine
Chemical CaMg(Co3)2 Crystalline Dolamite

Gypsum - CaSO4- fine to course

Chemical 2H2O crystalline Gypsum

fine to course
Chemical Halite - NaCl crystalline Rock Salt

Bio Chemical Organic Matter fine Bituinous Coal

Mixed corse to fine Calcareous
Sediments Clay + CaCo3 Crystalline Shale
visible
Mixed fragments of
Sediments Clay + Petrolium shells
microscopic Oil Shale
Mixed shells and Calcareous
Sediments Sand + CaCo3 clay Limestone
 Properties of important sedimentary
rocks
• From an engineering point of view most
important sedimentary rocks are Shale,
Sandstone and Limestone
• These three rocks make up 99% of all
sedimentary rock and distributed as;
– 46% Shale
– 32% Sandstone
– 22% Limestone
 Shale
• The term Shale is used for claystones,
siltstones and mudstones together.
• Possess easy cleavage laminated structure or
bedding.
• Strength properties may varying from soft to
very hard which explosives are required for
removal.
 Sandstone
• Contain grains of quartz, mica and fine grained
rock particles.
• Sandstone formed in desert environment has
brilliant colours like red orange and yellow
• Rock may be fine to coarse grained and
structure may be massive, horizontally or
cross bedded
• Good bearing material but soft layers may
interlaced between hard layers.
 Limestone
• Limestones are formed when CaCo3 desolved
in sea water precipates into crystals and
collects at sea bed abd combined with shells
of dead animals.
• The process takes millions of years .
• Colour varies but white and yellow most
common.
 Lime stone cont….
• The rock may vary from impervious to loose
textured and porous
• Good foundation material unless it is
cavernous.
• Percolation water through fissures can desolve
the rock.
• Chalk is a soft form of limestone.
 Coal
• Originated in 300 million years old swamps.
• When dead vegetation fell in to oxygen poor
water attacked by bacteria convert to peat.
• This layers first buried to form lignite (Soft
brown coal)
• Wham lignite buried deeper on action of high
pressure and temperature finally produce high
quality dark bituminous coal
 Oil and Natural Gases
• Oil and natural gases are also fossil like coal.
• But originate in plant and animal remains that
get buried in the mid at bottom of sea or
lakes.
• When overburden increases these sediments
are converted in to liquids and gases by
chemical reactions.
 Significance of Sedimentary Rocks

• That sedimentary rocks are important economic

assets
• Oil and gas production has been become the
economic engine for the entire world
• Not only oil and gas, but also a large variety of
other resources are extracted from sediments
and sedimentary rocks.
• Coal and lignite are special kinds of sedimentary
rocks (carbonaceous sediments), and they
constitute a very large resource that should last
for several hundred additional years.
 Significance cont…
• Most of the iron ore in the world is mined
from Precambrian sedimentary rocks and the
largest lead-zinc-silver and copper
deposits occur in sedimentary rocks (mostly
Precambrian, especially Proterozoic), and the
largest gold and uranium deposits also are
located in sedimentary rocks (Archean to
Proterozoic in age).
 Significance cont..
• The main ore for Aluminum production is
basically a fossil soil (also a sediment) that
formed in tropical climates. The raw
materials for ceramics provided from clay
minerals from (mudstones and shales)
• The largest gold accumulation in the world,
the Witwatersrand of South Africa, is a Late
Archean sedimentary basin with abundant
"fossil" placer gold deposits.
Texture of Conglomerate
Texture of Shale