Chapter 7

Sedimentary Rocks
 What is a sedimentary rock?
• Sedimentary rocks are products of
mechanical and chemical weathering
• They account for just 5% (by volume) of
Earth’s outer 10 miles, but also typify a
million square miles of flat-lying typography
in the Central and Midwestern United States.
• They contain evidence of past environments
• Provide information about sediment transport
• Often contain fossils
 What is a sedimentary rock?
• Sedimentary rocks are important for
economic considerations because they
may contain
• Coal
• Petroleum and natural gas
• Sources of iron, aluminum, and
manganese
 Turning sediment into rock
• Many changes occur to sediment after
it is deposited
• Diagenesis = chemical, physical, and
biological changes that take place after
sediments are deposited
• Occurs within the upper few kilometers
of Earth’s crust
 Turning sediment into rock
• Diagenesis
• Includes
– Recrystallization – development of more
stable minerals from less stable ones
– Lithification – sediments are transformed
into solid rock by
» Compaction and cementation
» Natural cements include calcite, silica,
and iron oxide
• The rate of diagenesis is tied to unit permeability.
Pervious strata undergo cementation much more
quickly than low permeability materials, like shale
Types of sedimentary rocks
• Sediment originates from mechanical
and/or chemical weathering
• Rock types are based on the source of
the material
• Detrital rocks – transported sediment as
solid particles
• Chemical rocks – sediment that was
once in solution
 Detrital sedimentary rocks
• The chief constituents of detrital rocks
include
• Clay minerals
• Quartz
• Feldspars
• Micas
• Particle size is used to distinguish
among the various rock types
 Detrital sedimentary rocks
• Common detrital sedimentary rocks
• Shale
– Mud-sized particles in thin layers that are
commonly referred to as laminea
– Most common sedimentary rock
• Sandstone
– Composed of sand-sized particles
– Forms in a variety of environments
– Quartz is the predominant mineral
• Alternating sequences of shale and sandstone
exposed in the Grand Canyon. Shale cannot support
steep cliffs or form erosional escarpments
Shale with plant remains
Quartz sandstone
Detrital sedimentary rocks
• Conglomerate and breccia
– Both are composed of particles greater than
2mm in diameter
– Conglomerate consists largely of rounded
gravels; often has a similar appearance to
“concrete”
– Breccia is composed mainly of large
angular particles and fragments, which have
not been rounded
Conglomerate
Breccia
 Chemical sedimentary rocks
• Consist of precipitated material that
was once in solution
• Precipitation of material occurs by
• Inorganic processes
• Organic processes (biochemical origin)
• Diagram showing the carbon cycle, with emphasis on
flow of carbon between the atmosphere and
hydrosphere
 Chemical sedimentary rocks
• Common chemical sedimentary rocks
• Limestone
– Most abundant chemical rock; underlies
much of Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, West
Virginia, and Tennessee
– Composed chiefly of the mineral calcite
– Marine biochemical limestones form as
coral reefs, coquina (broken shells), and
chalk (microscopic organisms)
– Inorganic limestones include travertine and
oolitic limestone
 Ancient
Coral Reef
• El Capitan
Peak in the
Guadalupe
Mtns of Texas
was part of a
large coral
reef during the
Permian
period, which
has become
lithified into
limestone
Coquina
Fossiliferous limestone
 Chemical sedimentary rocks
• Common chemical sedimentary rocks
• Dolostone
– Typically formed secondarily from
limestone
• Chert
– Composed of microcrystalline quartz
– Varieties include flint and jasper (banded
form is called agate)
Agate is a form of banded
chert
 Chemical sedimentary rocks
• Common chemical sedimentary rocks
• Evaporites
– Evaporation triggers deposition of chemical
precipitates
– Examples include rock salt; gypsum (used
for drywall, aspirin, Vitamin C tablets; and
potash (used for fertilizer)
• Bonneville salt flats in western Utah is the
remnant of the enormous Pleistocene-age
Lake Bonneville which once occupied the
area, to a depth of about 1150 feet.
• 30% of the world’s salt supply is extracted from the ocean. It
takes 10,000 gallons of sea water to produce 1 ton of salt
At U.S. Gypsum’s anhydrite mine near Split Mountain in the Anza-
Borrego Desert, west of Salton Sea, in southeastern California. This is
gypsum, not snow
 Chemical sedimentary rocks
• Common chemical sedimentary rocks
• Coal
– Different from other rocks because it is
composed of organic material
– Stages in coal formation (in order)
» 1. Plant material
» 2. Peat
» 3. Lignite
» 4. Bituminous
 Stages
of
coal
formation
 Stages
of
coal
formation
 Classification of sedimentary
rocks
• Sedimentary rocks are classified
according to the type of material they
are comprised of;
• Divided into two major groups:
• Detrital
• Chemical
 Classification of
sedimentary rocks
• Two major textures are used in the
classification of sedimentary rocks
• Clastic
– Discrete fragments and particles
– All detrital rocks have a clastic texture
• Nonclastic
– Pattern of interlocking crystals
– May resemble an igneous rock
Identification of sedimentary
rocks
 Sedimentary environments
• A geographic setting where sediment is
accumulating
• Determines the nature of the sediments
that accumulate (grain size, grain
shape, etc.)
 Sedimentary environments
• Types of sedimentary environments
• Continental
– Dominated by stream erosion and
deposition
– Glacial
– Wind (eolian)
• Marine
– Shallow (to about 200 meters)
– Deep (seaward of continental shelves)
Sedimentary environments

• Transitional (shoreline)
–Tidal flats
–Lagoons
–Deltas

All of these are relatively LOW

ENERGY environments
• Sediments deposited in stagnant swamps can
undergo as much as 90% consolidation during burial
and lithification into shale
• Low gradient areas like coastal plains shown here in
Bolsa de Chica in Orange County, CA, often contain
sinuous back channels filled with peaty soils, which are
subject to rapid oxidation through groundwater
withdrawal, resulting in rapid settlement.
Sedimentary
environments
 Sedimentation Studies at Lake Mead

Bathythermography tests adjacent to the

dam’s upstream face revealed unusually high
temperatures from biologic reduction of
nutrient rich silts brought 115 miles across the
sinuous course of the old river channel by
turbidity currents.
 Siltation studies

Hoover Dam had a design life of just 150 years before Lake
Mead was expected to silt up, without any upstream dams.
But about 50% more silt entered Lake Mead than expected,
the lion’s share of the silt emanated from the San Juan and
Little Colorado River Basins. Note sharp demarcation
between silt-laden water and clean reservoir water (right).
 Siltation of Lake
Mead and density
currents

In the early 1940s experiments were carried out at Caltech to

examine the mechanics of density currents, capable of
transporting large masses of sediment over near-zero slopes
 Recent Lake Mead sediment studies

The tailwater channel and deep basins of

Lake Mead are being infilled with silt coming
out of the Grand Canyon. The annual influx
was reduced substantially when Glen
Canyon Dam closed its gates in the fall of
1964.
Sedimentary
environments
About 14.5 ka, sea level began rising markedly, world-wide.
 Sedimentary environments
• Sedimentary facies
• Different sediments often accumulate
adjacent to one another at the same time
• Each unit (called a facies) possesses a
distinctive set of characteristics
reflecting the conditions of a particular
environment
• The merging of adjacent facies is a
gradual transition
Sedimentary
Facies and
Sequence
Stratigraphy
Transgressive and regressive
sequences
 Transgressive
and Regressive
Depositional
Sequences
• The Tapeats
Sandstone, Bright
Angel Shale, and
Muav Limestone
represent a
significant
transgressional
sequence in the
Grand Canyon
during the
Cambrian Period
 The Grand Staircase

• Cross section of the sedimentary formations

exposed in the Colorado Plateau between south
central Utah and northern Arizona.
• The thickest sequence is the Jurassic age
Navajo Sandstone, which reaches a thickness of
2,200 feet in Zion National Park.
• Paleozoic age rocks in the Grand Canyon, Mesozoic in
Zion, and Cenozoic age strata in Bryce Canyon
National Parks.
 Sedimentary structures
• Provide information useful in the
interpretation of Earth history
• Types of sedimentary structures
• Strata, or beds (most characteristic of
sedimentary rocks)
• Bedding planes that separate strata
• Cross-bedding
 Sedimentary structures
• Types of sedimentary structures
• Graded beds
• Ripple marks
• Mud cracks
• Fossils
• Joints – generally, most important
structures for engineering structures in
rock or assessing groundwatrer flow
through rock formations
• Systematic joints perturb every sedimentary rock unit.
This view shows a 1600 foot high exposure of the
Navajo Sandstone near Hildale, Utah.
• Schematic block diagram showing observed variables
in spacing of primary systematic regional joints.
• Note how the spacing between joints decreases with
decreasing bed thickness, likely due to variances in
layer stiffness.
Plan view illustrating spatial arraignment Block diagram showing systematic
of systematic regional joints. Note joint clusters of one joint set, or suite
overlapping nature and tendency to form
clusters

Block diagram illustrating how joints Block diagram illustrating how joint
of the same set or suite may sets intersect one another. These
occasionally intersect one another appear regular plan, but cross one
another in section.
 Joint Control
• Most cliffs are joint
controlled, by one, two,
or three sets of primary
regional systematic
joints.
• Note dilation of joints
seen here
• These joints are often
open behind the cliff
face, as shown here
(Coconino Sandstone
beneath Monument Point,
North Rim of the Grand
Canyon)
• A common problem with mapping discontinuities exposed in
outcrops are secondary fractures that tend to parallel the valley
side, known as valley-side joints. These joints are not often visible
and are, generally, the most deadly features.
• The simplest form of block kinemeatics is frictional sliding of a
rectangular block, depicted here. The friction coefficient is often
assumed to be close to tan 30o, or 0.50. The presence of water
(shown at left) can reduce this significantly, triggering failure.
 Displaced block

• The most important factor in triggering rock

slides is pore pressure along inclined
discontinuities. Pre pressure reduces the
effective stress, which in turn, reduces the
overall frictional resistance.
• Valley-side joints are particularly treacherous because
they are usually inclined at close to 45-Ø/2 degrees
from vertical (around 60 degrees), which offers the least
shear resistance to slippage.