Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

Sedimentary Rocks
Sedimentary rocks make up only about 5 percent of the Earth’s crust. However, because they
form on the Earth’s surface, they are widely spread in a thin veneer over underlying igneous and
metamorphic rocks. As a result, sedimentary rocks cover about 75 percent of continents.
Many sedimentary rocks have high economic value. Oil and gas form in certain sedimentary
rocks. Coal, a major energy resource, is a sedimentary rock. Limestone is an important building
material, both as stone and as the primary ingredient in cement. Gypsum is the raw material for
plaster.

Types of Sedimentary Rocks

Sedimentary rocks are broadly divided into four categories:
1. Clastic sedimentary rocks are composed of fragments of weathered rocks, called clasts, that
have been transported, deposited, and cemented together. Clastic rocks make up more than 85
percent of all sedimentary rocks (Fig. 4–1). This category includes sandstone, siltstone, mud
shale.
2. Organic sedimentary rocks consist of the remains of plants or animals. Coal is an organic
sedimentary rock made up of decomposed and compacted plant remains.
3. Chemical sedimentary rocks form by direct precipitation of minerals from solution. Rock salt,
for example, forms when salt precipitates from evaporating seawater or saline lake water.
4. Bioclastic sedimentary rocks. Most limestone is composed of broken shell fragments. The
fragments are clastic, but they form from organic material. As a result, limestone formed in this
way is called a bioclastic rock.

Table 4-1 Sediment Particles and Detrital Sedimentary Rocks

Boulder Gravel Breccia (angular particles) or
256 Cobble conglomerate
64 Pebble )rounded particles(
2 Sand Sandstone
1/16 Silt Mud Silt Siltstone (mostly silt)
1/256 Clay Shale or mudstone
)mostly clay(
.Sandstone and shale are quite common; the others are relatively rare

Clastic sedimentary rocks

Clastic sediment consists of grains and particles that were eroded from weathered rocks and
then were transported and deposited in loose, unconsolidated layers at the Earth’s surface. The
sand on a beach, boulders in a river bed, and mud in a puddle are all clastic sediments. Clastic
sediment is named according to particle size (Table 4–1). Gravel includes all rounded particles
larger than 2 millimeters in diameter. Angular particles in the same size range are called rubble.
Sand ranges from 1/16 to 2 millimeters in diameter. Sand feels gritty when rubbed between your
fingers, and you can see the grains with your naked eye. Silt varies from 1/256 to 1/16
millimeter. Individual silt grains feel smooth when rubbed between the fingers but gritty when
rubbed between your teeth. Clay is less than 1/256 millimeter in diameter. It is so fine that it
feels smooth even when rubbed between your teeth. Geologists often rub a small amount of
sediment or rock between their front teeth to distinguish between silt and clay. Mud is wet silt
and clay.

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Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

Naming Sedimentary Rocks Units

A body of rock is commonly given a formal name and referred to as a formation. A formation
can consist of a single rock type or several different rock types. To qualify as a formation, a body
of rock should be easily recognizable in the field and be thick and laterally extensive enough to
show up well on a geologic map. Although sedimentary rocks are most commonly designated as
formations, bodies of igneous and metamorphic rock that meet these qualifications also are
named and are called formations. Formations are often named for the geographic locality where
they are well exposed and were first defined.
A contact is the surface between two rocks of different types or ages. Contacts separate
formations and separate different rock types or layers within a single formation. In sedimentary
rocks, contacts are usually bedding planes.
For convenience, geologists sometimes lump two or more formations together into a group or
subdivide a formation into members.

Lithification
Lithification refers to processes that convert loose sediment to hard rock. Two of the most
important processes are compaction and cementation. If you fill a container with sand, the sand
grains do not fill the entire space. Small voids, called pores, exist between the grains. When
sediment is deposited in water, the pores are usually filled with water. The proportion of space
occupied by pores depends on particle size, shape, and sorting. Commonly, freshly deposited
clastic sediment has about 20 to 40 percent pore space, although a well-sorted and well-rounded
sand may have up to 50 percent pore space. Clay-rich mud may have as much as 90 percent pore
space occupied by water.
As more sediment accumulates, its weight compacts the buried sediment, decreasing pore
space and forcing out some of the water. This process is called compaction. Compaction alone
may lithify clay because the platy grains interlock like pieces of a puzzle. Water normally
circulates through the pore space in buried and compacted sediment. This water commonly
contains dissolved calcium carbonate, silica, and iron, which precipitate in the pore spaces and
cement the clastic grains together to form a hard rock.
In some environments, sediment lithifies quickly, whereas the process is slow in others. In the
Rocky Mountains, calcite has cemented glacial deposits less than 20,000 years old. The speed of
lithification depends mainly on the availability of cementing material and water to carry the
dissolved cement through the sediment.

Types Of Clastic Rocks

Conglomerate and breccia are coarse-grained clastic rocks. They are the lithified equivalents
of gravel and rubble, respectively. In a conglomerate the particles are rounded, and in a
sedimentary breccia they are angular. Because large particles become rounded rapidly over short
distances of transport, sedimentary breccias are usually found close to the weathering site where
the angular rock fragments formed. Each clast in a conglomerate or breccia is usually much
larger than the individual mineral grains in the rock. Therefore, the clasts retain most of the
characteristics of the parent rock. If enough is known about the geology of an area where
conglomerate or breccia is found, it may be possible to identify exactly where the clasts
originated. A granite clast in a sedimentary breccia probably came from nearby granite bedrock.
Gravel typically has large pores between the clasts because the individual particles are large.
These pores usually fill with finer sediment such as sand or silt. The next time you walk along a
cobbly stream, look carefully between the cobbles. You will probably see sand or silt trapped

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Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

among the larger clasts. As a result, most conglomerates have fine sediment among the large
clasts.
Sandstone consists of lithified sand grains. When granitic bedrock weathers, feldspar
commonly converts to clay, but quartz crystals resist weathering. As streams carry the clay and
quartz grains toward the sea, the quartz grains become rounded. The flowing water deposits the
sand in one environment and the clay in another. Consequently, most sandstones consist
predominantly of rounded quartz grains. The word sandstone refers to any clastic sedimentary
rock comprising primarily sand-sized grains. Most sandstones are quartz sandstone and contain
more than 90 percent quartz.
Arkose is a sandstone comprising 25 percent or more feldspar grains, with most of the
remaining grains being quartz. The sand grains in arkose are commonly coarse and angular. The
high feldspar content and the coarse, angular nature of the grains indicate that the rock forms
only a short distance from its source area, perhaps adjacent to granite cliffs.
Graywacke is a poorly sorted sandstone with considerable quantities of silt and clay in its
pores. Graywacke is commonly dark in color because of fine clay that coatsthe sand grains. The
grains are usually quartz, feldspar, and fragments of volcanic, metamorphic, and sedimentary
rock.
Claystone, shale, mudstone, and siltstone are all finegrained clastic rocks. Claystone is
composed predominantly of clay minerals and small amounts of quartz and other minerals of
clay size. Shale consists of the same material but has a finely layered structure called fissility,
along which the rock splits easily. Clay minerals have platy shapes, like mica. When clays are
deposited in water, the sediment commonly contains 50 to 60 percent water, and the platelike
clay minerals are randomly oriented. As more sediment accumulates, compaction drives out
most of the water and the clay plates rotate so that their flat surfaces lie perpendicular to the pull
of gravity. Thus, they stack like sheets of paper on a shelf. The fissility of shale results from the
parallel orientation of the platy clay minerals.
Mudstone is a nonfissile rock composed of clay and silt. In some mudstone and claystone,
layering is absent because burrowing animals such as worms, clams, and crabs disrupted it by
churning the sediment.
Siltstone is lithified silt. The main component of most siltstones is quartz, although clays are
also commonly present. Siltstones often show layering but lack the fine fissility of shales
because of their lower clay content.
Shale, mudstone, and siltstone make up 70 percent of all clastic sedimentary rocks. Their
abundance reflects the vast quantity of clay produced by weathering. Shale is usually gray to
black due to the presence of partially decayed remains of plants and animals commonly
deposited with clay-rich sediment. This organic material in shales is the source of most oil and
natural gas.

Organic sedimentary rocks

Organic sedimentary rocks, such as chert and coal, form by lithification of the remains of plants
and animals.
Chert is a rock composed of pure silica. It occurs as sedimentary beds interlayered with other
sedimentary rocks and as irregularly shaped lumps called nodules in other sedimentary rocks.
Microscopic examination of bedded chert often shows that it is made up of the remains of tiny
marine organisms that make their skeletons of silica rather than calcium carbonate. In contrast,
some nodular chert appears to form by precipitation from silicarich ground water, most often in
limestone. Chert was one of the earliest geologic resources. Flint, a dark gray to black variety,
was frequently used for arrowheads, spear points, scrapers, and other tools chipped to hold a
fine edge.

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Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

Coal, when plants die, their remains usually decompose by reaction with oxygen. However, in
warm swamps and in other environments where plant growth is rapid, dead plants accumulate so
rapidly that the oxygen is used up long before the decay process is complete. The undecayed or
partially decayed plant remains form peat. As peat is buried and compacted by overlying
sediments, it converts to coal, a hard, black, combustible rock.

Chemical sedimentary rocks Some common elements in rocks and minerals, such as calcium,
sodium, potassium, and magnesium, dissolve during chemical weathering and are carried by
ground water and streams to the oceans or to lakes. Most lakes are drained by streams that carry
the salts to the ocean.
Evaporites form when evaporation concentrates dissolved ions to the point at which they
precipitate from solution.. The most common minerals found in evaporite deposits are gypsum
(CaSO4 _ 2H2O)1 and halite (NaCl). Gypsum is used in plaster and wallboard, and halite is
common salt. Evaporites form economic deposits in many basins and coastal areas. However,
they compose only a small proportion of all sedimentary rocks.
As waves and currents roll tiny shell fragments back and forth on the sea bottom, calcium
carbonate precipitates in concentric layers on the fragments. This process produces nearly perfect
spheres called ooliths. In turn, ooliths may become cemented together to form Oolitic limestone.
Limestone of this type is a chemical sedimentary rock. However, most limestone is bioclastic, as
discussed next.

Bioclastic Rocks
Carbonate rocks are made up primarily of carbonate minerals, which contain the carbonate
ion (CO3)2–. The most common carbonate minerals are calcite (calcium carbonate, CaCO3) and
dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate, CaMg(CO3)2). Calcite-rich carbonate rocks are called
limestone, whereas rocks rich in the mineral dolomite are also called dolomite. Many geologists
use the term dolostone for the rock name to distinguish it from the mineral dolomite. Seawater
contains large quantities of dissolved calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Clams, oysters, corals, some
types of algae, and a variety of other marine organisms convert dissolved calcium carbonate to
shells and other hard body parts. When these organisms die, waves and ocean currents break the
shells into small fragments, called bioclastic sediment. A rock formed by Lithification of such
sediment is called bioclastic limestone, indicating that it forms by both biological and clastic
processes. Many limestones are bioclastic. The bits and pieces of shells appear as fossils in the
rock. Organisms that form limestone thrive and multiply in warm, shallow seas because the sun
shines directly on the ocean floor, where most of them live.
Coquina is bioclastic limestone consisting wholly of coarse shell fragments cemented
together. Chalk is a very fine-grained, soft, white bioclastic limestone made of the shells and
skeletons of microorganisms that float near the surface of the oceans. When they die, their
remains sink to the bottom and accumulate to form chalk.

The Origin of Oil and Gas

Oil and natural gas seem to originate from organic matter in marine sediment. Microscopic
organisms, such as diatoms and other single-celled algae, settle to the sea floor and accumulate
in marine mud. The most likely environments for this are restricted basins with poor water
circulation, particularly on continental shelves. The organic matter may partially decompose,
using up the dissolved oxygen in the sediment. As soon as the oxygen is gone, decay stops and
the remaining organic matter is preserved.

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Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

Continued sedimentation buries the organic matter and subjects it to higher temperatures and
pressures, which convert the organic matter to oil and gas. As muddy sediments compact, the gas
and small droplets of oil may be squeezed out of the mud and may move into more porous and
permeable sandy layers nearby. Over long periods of time, large accumulations of gas and oil
can collect in the sandy layers. Both oil and gas are less dense than water, so they generally tend
to rise upward through water-saturated rock and sediment. Natural gas represents
the end point in petroleum maturation.

Sedimentary Structures
Nearly all sedimentary rocks contain sedimentary structures, features that developed during or
shortly after deposition of the sediment. These structures help us understand how the sediment
was transported and deposited. The most obvious and common sedimentary structure is bedding,
or stratification layering that develops as sediment is deposited. Bedding forms because sediment
accumulates layer by layer. Nearly all sedimentary beds were originally horizontal because most
sediment accumulates on nearly level surfaces.
Cross-bedding consists of small beds lying at an angle to the main sedimentary layering.
Cross-bedding forms in many environments where wind or water transports and deposits
sediment. For example, wind heaps sand into parallel ridges called dunes, and flowing water
forms similar features called sand waves.
Ripple marks are small, nearly parallel sand ridges and troughs that are also formed by
moving water or wind. They are like dunes and sand waves, but smaller. If the water or wind
flows in a single direction, the ripple marks become asymmetrical, like miniature dunes. In other
cases, waves move back and forth in shallow water, forming symmetrical ripple marks in bottom
sand
graded bedding, the largest grains collect at the bottom of a layer and the grain size decreases
toward the top. Graded beds commonly form when some violent activity, such as a major flood
or submarine land-slide, mixes a range of grain sizes together in water. The larger grains settle
rapidly and concentrate at the base of the bed. Finer particles settle more slowly and accumulate
in the upper parts of the bed.
Mud cracks are polygonal cracks that form when mud shrinks as it dries. They indicate that
the mud accumulated in shallow water that periodically dried up. For example, mud cracks are
common on intertidal mud flats where sediment is flooded by water at high tide and exposed at
low tide. The cracks often fill with sediment carried in by the next high tide and are commonly
well preserved in rocks. Occasionally, very delicate sedimentary structures are preserved in
rocks.

Metamorphism And metamorphic rocks

Metamorphism refers to changes to rocks that take place in Earth’s interior. The changes may
be new textures, new mineral assemblages, or both. Transformations occur in the solid state
(meaning the rock does not melt). The new rock is a metamorphic rock.
A metamorphic rock owes its characteristic texture and particular mineral content to several
factors, the most important being
(1) the composition of the parent rock before metamorphism.
(2) temperature and pressure during metamorphism,
(3) the effects of tectonic forces, and
(4) the effects of fluids, such as water.

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Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

Classification of metamorphic rock

I. Nonfoliated Rocks
If the rock is nonfoliated, it is named on the basis of its composition. The two most common
nonfoliated rocks are marble and quartzite, composed, respectively, of calcite and quartz.
Marble, a coarse-grained rock composed of interlocking calcite crystals, forms when
limestone recrystallizes during metamorphism. If the parent rock is dolomite, the recrystallized
rock is a dolomite marble. Marble has long been valued as a building material and as a material
for sculpture, partly because it is easily cut and polished and partly because it reflects light in a
shimmering pattern, a result of the excellent cleavage of the individual calcite crystals.
Quartzite is produced when grains of quartz in sandstone are welded together while the rock
is subjected to high temperature. This makes it as difficult to break along grain boundaries as
through the grains. Therefore, quartzite, being as hard as a single quartz crystal, is difficult to
crush or break.
Hornfels is a very fine-grained, nonfoliated, metamorphic rock whose parent rock is either
shale or basalt. If it forms from shale, characteristically only microscopically visible micas form
from the shale’s clay minerals. Sometimes a few minerals grow large enough to be seen with the
naked eye; these are minerals that are especially capable of crystallizing under the particular
temperature attained during metamorphism.

II. Foliated Rocks

If the rock is foliated, you need to determine the type of foliation to name the rock. For
example, a schistose rock is called a schist. But this name tells us nothing about what minerals
are in this rock, so we add adjectives to describe the composition for example, garnet-mica
schist. The following are the most common foliated rocks progressing from lower grade (they
usually form at lower temperatures) to higher grade:
Slate is a very fine-grained rock that splits easily along flat, parallel planes. Although some
slate forms from volcanic ash, the usual parent rock is shale. Slate develops under temperatures
and pressures only slightly greater than those found in the sedimentary realm. The temperatures
are not high enough for the rock to thoroughly recrystallize. The important controlling factor is
differential stress. The original clay minerals partially recrystallize into equally fine-grained,
platy minerals. Aslate indicates that a relatively cool and brittle rock has been subjected to
intense tectonic activity. Because of the ease with which it can be split into thin, flat sheets, slate
is used for making chalkboards, pool tables, and roofs.
Phyllite is a rock in which the newly formed micas are larger than the platy minerals in slate
but still cannot be seen with the naked eye. This requires a further increase in temperature over
that needed for slate to form. The very fine-grained mica imparts a satin sheen to the rock, which
may otherwise closely resemble slate. But the slaty cleavage may be crinkled in the process of
conversion of slate to phyllite.
A schist is characterized by megascopically visible, approximately parallel-oriented minerals.
Platy or elongate minerals that crystallize from the parent rock are clearly visible to the naked
eye. Which minerals form depends on the particular combination of temperature and pressure
prevailing during recrystallization as well as the composition of the parent rock. Two, of several,
schists that form from shale are mica schist and garnet-mica schist. Although they both have the
same parent rock, they form under different combinations of temperature and pressure. If the
parent rock is basalt, the schists that form are quite different.
Gneiss is a rock consisting of light and dark mineral layers or lenses. The highest
temperatures and pressures have changed the rock so that minerals have separated into layers.

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Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

Platy or elongate minerals (such as mica or amphibole) in dark layers alternate with layers of
light-colored minerals of no particular shape. Within the light-colored layers, coarse feldspars
have crystallized. In composition, a gneiss may resemble granite or diorite, but it is
distinguishable from those plutonic rocks by its foliation. Temperature conditions under which a
gneiss develops approach those at which granite solidifies.

Metamorphic Grade
Metamorphic grade expresses the intensity of metamorphism that affected a rock. Because
temperature is the most important factor in metamorphism, metamorphic grade closely reflects
the highest temperature attained during metamorphism. Geologists can interpret the metamorphic
grade of most rocks because many metamorphic minerals form only within certain temperature
ranges.
The temperature in shallow parts of the Earth’s crust rises by an average of 30C for each
kilometer of depth. It continues to rise in deeper parts of the crust and in the mantle, but at a
lesser rate. The rate at which temperature increases with depth is called the geothermal gradient.
Consequently, the metamorphic grade of many rocks is related to the depth to which they were
buried. Low-grade metamorphism occurs at shallow depths, less than 10 to 12 kilometers
beneath the surface, where temperature is below 350 C. High-grade conditions are found deep
within continental crust and in the upper mantle, 40 or more kilometers below the Earth’s
surface. The temperature in these regions is 600C or hotter and is near the melting point of rock.
High-grade metamorphism can occur at shallower depths, where magma rises to a shallow level
of the Earth’s crust.

The Rate Of Metamorphism

A rule of thumb among laboratory chemists is that the speed of a chemical reaction doubles
with every 10C rise in temperature. Thus, reactions occur slowly in a cold environment, but
rapidly in a hot one. For the same reason, metamorphic changes occur slowly at low temperature,
but much faster at high temperature. Elsewhere, similar clays at the same temperature, but only
1 million years old, show no changes. Thus, metamorphism can occur at temperatures as low as
50C, but the reactions require millions of years.1 In contrast, geologists routinely produce
metamorphic reactions in the laboratory at temperatures above 500C in a few days.
The upper limit of metamorphism is the point at which rocks melt to form magma. That
temperature varies depending on rock composition, pressure, and amount of water present, but it
is between 600° and 1200°C for most rocks. A rock heated to its melting point creates magma,
which forms igneous rocks when it solidifies.

Types of Metamorphism
The two most common types of metamorphism are contact metamorphism and regional
metamorphism. Hydrothermal processes, in which hot water plays a major role during
metamorphism, are discussed later in this chapter.
I. Contact Metamorphism
Contact metamorphism (also known as thermal metamorphism) is metamorphism in which
high temperature is the dominant factor. Confining pressure may influence which new minerals
crystallize; however, the confining pressure is usually relatively low. This is because contact
metamorphism mostly takes place not too far beneath Earth’s surface (less than 10 kilometers).
Contact metamorphism occurs adjacent to a pluton when a body of magma intrudes relatively
cool country rock. The process can be thought of as the “baking” of country rock adjacent to an

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Lecture IV Sedimentary Rocks And Metamorphic Rocks

intrusive contact; hence, the term contact metamorphism. The zone of contact metamorphism
(also called an aureole) is usually quite narrow generally from 1 to 100 meters wide. Differential
stress is rarely significant. Therefore, the most common rocks found in an aureole are the
nonfoliated rocks: marble when igneous rock intrudes limestone; quartzite when quartz
sandstone is metamorphosed; hornfels when shale is scorched.
Marble and quartzite also form under conditions of regional metamorphism. When grains of
calcite or quartz recrystallize, they tend to be equidimensional, rather than elongate or platy. For
this reason, marble and quartzite do not usually exhibit foliation, even though subjected to
differential stress during metamorphism.

II. Regional Metamorphism

The great majority of the metamorphic rocks found on Earth’s surface are products of
regional metamorphism, which is metamorphism that takes place at considerable depth
underground (generally greater than 5 kilometers). Regional metamorphic rocks are almost
always foliated, indicating differential stress during recrystallization (for this reason, regional
metamorphism is sometimes referred to as dynamothermal metamorphism).
Metamorphic rocks are prevalent in the most intensely deformed portions of mountain ranges.
They are visible where once deeply buried cores of mountain ranges are exposed by erosion.
Furthermore, large regions of the continents are underlain by metamorphic rocks, thought to be
the roots of ancient mountains long since eroded down to plains or rolling hills.
Temperatures during regional metamorphism vary widely. Usually, the temperatures are in
the range of 300 to 800°C. Temperature at a particular place depends to a large extent on depth
of burial and the geothermal gradient of the region. Locally, temperature may also increase
because of heat given off by nearby magma bodies. The high confining pressure is due to burial
under 5 or more kilometers of rock. The differential stress is due to tectonism; that is, the
constant movement and squeezing of the crust during mountain-building episodes.
Temperatures and pressures during metamorphism can be estimated through the results of
laboratory experimental studies of minerals. In many cases, we can estimate temperature and
pressure by determining the conditions under which an assemblage of several minerals can
coexist. In some instances, a single mineral, or index mineral, suffices for determining the
pressure and temperature combination under which a rock recrystallized.

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