How are the Sedimentary Rocks formed?

Contributed by:
kevin
Sedimentary rocks are formed from pre-existing rocks or pieces of once-living organisms. They form from deposits that accumulate on the Earth's surface.
1. Lecture 6-7
Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks
Part 1
Sedimentary Rocks
Kyanite, Sillimanite, and Andalucite
2. What is a sedimentary rock?
• Sedimentary rocks result from mechanical
and chemical weathering
• Comprise ~ 5% of Earth’s upper crust
• About 75% of rocks at surface
• Contain evidence of past environments
• Record how sediment is transported
• Often contain fossils
3. What is the economic importance of
sedimentary rocks?
• They are important for economic reasons
because they contain
• Coal
• Petroleum and natural gas
• Iron, aluminum, uranium and manganese
• Geologists use them to read Earth’s history
4. Cementation
• Precipitation of chemicals dissolved in water
binds grains of a sediment together.
• After the cements solidify, compaction drives
out the excess water.
• Important part of Lithification
• Remember where cements come from?
5. Types of sedimentary rocks
• Chemical rocks – sediment from
ions that were once in solution
• Detrital rocks –sediment
transported as solid particles
6. Detrital sedimentary rocks
• Constituents of detrital rocks can include
• Clay minerals
• Quartz
• Feldspars
• Micas
• Particle size is used to distinguish among
the various types of detrital rocks
7. Detrital sedimentary rocks
• Mudrocks: less than .063 mm
– 1. Mud: small particles easily kept in
suspension
– Settles in quiet water
– Includes Shale: mud-sized particles <.004 mm
deposited in thin bedding layers called laminae
Most common sedimentary rock
2. Larger mudrock grains called silts
silt-sized particles .004-.063 mm
Gritty grains can be felt
8. Detrital sedimentary rocks
• Sandstone
– Made of sand-sized particles larger than .063 mm and
less than 2mm
– Forms in a variety of environments
– Sorting, angularity and composition of grains can be
used to interpret the rock’s history
– Quartz is the predominant mineral (due to its
durable nature)
9. Detrital
sedimentary
rocks
• Conglomerate and breccia
– Both composed of particles > 2mm in
diameter
– Conglomerate consists largely of rounded
clasts. Rounded pebbles in high velocity areas
– Breccia is composed of large angular
particles Breccia is made of shattered rock that accumulates at the base of a cliff
10. Energy
• Coarse sediments are deposited in high
energy (fast water) environments such as
under breaking waves at the beach, or in
the beds of fast streams.
• Fine sediments are deposited in low
energy environments, e.g. the slow water
of deep lagoons, the abyssal plain, etc.
11. Chemical sedimentary rocks
• Precipitated material once in solution
• Precipitation of material occurs two
ways:
• Inorganic processes: the minerals
precipitate out of water
• Organic processes: animals and plants
precipitate the minerals to use as shells
or skeletons
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/collections/micro.html
12. • Common chemical sedimentary rocks
• Limestone
–Most abundant chemical rock
–Made of the mineral calcite CaCO3
–Marine biochemical limestones form
as coral reefs, coquina (broken
shells), and chalk (microscopic
organisms)
–Inorganic limestones include
travertine (caves) and oolitic
limestone (Bahamas)
13. • Common chemical sedimentary rocks
• Evaporites
–Evaporation triggers deposition
of chemical precipitates
–Examples include rock salt and
rock gypsum
14. Chemical Sediments: Coal
15. Sedimentary environment determines roundness sorting, mineral diversity
Character of detrital sediments depends on time,
6_5
distance, and energy. For example, in streams:
Particles are large and Particles are mid-sized Particles are small and
irregular, and consist of and of intermediate nearly spherical, and
a variety of lithologies, sphericity, and include consist mainly of the
including the least resistant and nonresistant most resistant lithologies,
resistant. lithologies. such as quartz.
HIGHLANDS LOWLANDS NEAR-COASTAL
16. Graded bedding Floods change the local
conditions
6_6
Fine-grained sediment
On floodplain
Older sediment
1 Pre-flood Bounders on
bottom, sands
and muds
suspended
Flood water
Erosion of uppermost
fine-grained sediment
2 Flood stage
Waning flow
Fine-grained above
Coarse-grained
below
Bedding plane
3 Post-flood
17. • Sedimentary Facies
• Different sediments accumulate
next to each other at same time
• Each unit (called a facies) possesses
a distinctive characteristics
reflecting the conditions in a
particular environment
• The merging of adjacent facies
tends to be a gradual transition
18. Some Facies in an oversimplified drawing
Abyssal Ooze Stillwater muds Nearshore sands
19. Strata- Bedding Planes
20. Slabs of eroding sandstone with ripple marks
21. Cross Beds are ripples in cross section
• Irregularities lead to ripples, dunes,
sand bars.
• In cross section these look like lines at
an angle to the horizontal – “cross beds”
• Ripples can indicate direction of air or
water flow if asymmetrical, a tidal
environment if symmetrical. Size and
shape indicate fluid velocity.
22. Cross bedding in Sand Dune deposits
Navaho Sandstone
Sandstone deposited
in ancient sand dunes
Frosted Grains, well sorted
23. Mud Cracks: clay layer shrinks during drying, curls
upward; cracks fill next flood. Useful for right-side up
24. Terms for Marine (i.e. Ocean) Environments
and some characteristic
6_27 sediment facies
Continental
Continental slope
shelf
Shallo
w Abyssal
marin
e Plain
Dee
p ma
rine
Define Graded Beds
Submarine
volcanoes
25. Fossils are traces of prehistoric life generally
preserved in sedimentary rock
26. Dinosaur footprint in mudstone
27. End of Sedimentary
Rocks
28. Part 2
Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
29. Metamorphism
• … is the transformation of rock by high
temperatures (heat) and pressure
• Metamorphic rocks are produced by
transformation of:
• Sedimentary and Igneous rocks, and by the
further alteration of other metamorphic rocks
• These are the source of many important
minerals
– Talc (lubricant, insulators, refractories),
Corundum, Garnet (abrasives), Kyanite
(ceramics), Micas (insulators), Chrysotile
(“asbestos” for fireproofing), etc., etc.
30. Minerals do not melt during metamorphism
Sedimentary
0 km rock
Metamorphic
rock
Sediment Igneous
rock
10 km
~200ºC Sedimentary
rock
Increasing depth
and temperature
Metamorphis
Metamorphism
m occurs
between
about 10 and
50 km of
depth
50 km
Melting
31. What causes metamorphism?
1. Heat
• Most important agent
• Heat drives recrystallization - creates new,
stable minerals
• Increasing Heat with Depth
32. What causes metamorphism?
2. Pressure (stress)
Increases with depth
Pressure can be applied equally in all
directions or differentially
All Directions = “Confining Pressure”
Differential = “Directed Pressure”
33. Origin of pressure in
metamorphism
(Convergent Margin)
34. Directed Pressure causes rocks to become folded, and
minerals to reorient perpendicular to the stress: “foliation”
Source: Kenneth Murray/Photo Researchers Inc.
35. Main factors affecting
metamorphism
3. Parent rock
• Metamorphic rocks usually have the same
chemical composition as the rock they were
formed from.
• Different minerals, but made of the same atoms.
• Exception: water carries in new atoms and
removes others. Important at MOR and in
subduction zones.
36. Metamorphic Settings
• Three types of metamorphic settings:
• Contact metamorphism – due heat from adjacent rocks
• Hydrothermal metamorphism – chemical alterations from
hot, ion-rich water
• Regional metamorphism -- Occurs in the cores of
mountain belts and subduction zones (Converging
Margins) . Makes great volumes of metamorphic rock.
Includes:
– Burial Metamorphism – e.g. Burial of sediments
deeper than 10 km – non-foliated
– Dynamothermal Metamorphism – Directed pressure
in Plate Tectonic Processes - foliated
37. Contact metamorphism
Produced mostly by local heat source
38. 2. Hydrothermal Metamorphism
• Due circulation of water near Magma
• Important at mid-ocean ridge
39. Hydrothermal Metamorphism
40. Metamorphism in a Subduction Zone
Shallow Lithosphere
Near trench
Deep Lithosphere
41. Metamorphic Grade and
Index Minerals
• Certain minerals, called index
minerals, are good indicators of
the metamorphic conditions in which
they form
42. Certain minerals, called index minerals, are good indicators of the metamorphic conditions in which they form
Notice Quartz and Feldspars are useless
Note Quartz and Feldspar are not index minerals: Why?
43. Some Useful as Thermometers and
Pressure Gauges
Sillimanite
Kyanite
Polymorphs of
Andalusite
44. CANADA 7_21
New England
Dynamothermal D
AN A .
A
MAINE
Augusta

Metamorphism C
U.S
. A
Montpelier
NEW
Mapped by index mineralsVERMONT HAMPSHIRE 

Concord ATLANTIC
OCEAN

Boston
NEW YORK

Albany
MASSACHUSETTS

Hartford 
R.I.

Binghamton
CONNECTICUT
Providence
Unmetamorphosed
ey Low Chlorite/muscovite zone
l
va l

PENNSYLVANIA
Scranton 
grade
Long Medium
Biotite zone
Garnet zone
i ft Island grade Staurolite zone
NEW r Newark High grade
JERSEY Sillimanite zone
Increasing pressure and temperature
DIAGENESIS LOW GRADE INTERMEDIATE GRADE HIGH GRADE MELTING
Chlorite and muscovite
Biotite
Garnet
Staurolite
Sillimanite
45. Common metamorphic rocks
• 1. Nonfoliated rocks
• Quartzite
– Formed from a parent rock of quartz-rich
sandstone
– Quartz grains are fused together
– Forms in intermediate T, P conditions
46. Common metamorphic rocks
• Nonfoliated rocks (cont.)
• Marble
– Coarse, crystalline
– Parent rock usually limestone
– Composed of calcite crystals
– Fabric can be random or oriented
47. Change in metamorphic grade with depth
Metamorphism of a mudstone
Increasing Directed Pressure and increasing Temps
48. A mica garnet schist
Definition: Schist
Garnets are abrasives, long lasting bearings, and jewels
49. Gneiss displays bands of light
and dark minerals
50. Development of foliation due to
directed pressure
Granodiorite Gneiss
51. Migmatites- When Partial Melting Starts
• Heat the rock, when the minerals with the lowest melting
points (Quartz, Feldspar) at that pressure melt, then
recrystallize. We get separate regions of Metamorphic
(dark, mafic) and Igneous (light, felsic) rock
Part igneous, part metamorphic