Dear RG researchers
What is sedimentary rock and how it can be described by scientific way?
The purpose to ask the question make it a platform for young geological learners.
Reagrds
Ijaz
Dear Mr. Ahmad:
Sedimentary rocks have been derived from deposition of organic material (e.g. coal) or siliciclastic material (e.g. sand) (minerals and aggregates of rocks (metamorphic, magmatic, sedimentary) , called lithoclasts). These fragments originated from weathering, erosion and transport by water, wind and ice or simple mass wasting. Bioclastic rocks have been derived from biogenic material. Depending on the transport distance the grain size may range from gravel to clay. There are sedimentary rocks which formed immediately on top of the parent material called residual deposits which may grade directly into the topsoil (see pedology). Apart from siliciclastic rocks, there are chemical sediments (organic and biogenic). This rocks may be altered during diagenesis ,e.g. cementation under temperatures and pressure below the metamorphic grade
This is a simple description for the beginners only.
Kind regards
Harald G. Dill
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the deposition and subsequent cementation of mineral or organic particles on the floor of oceans or other bodies of water at the Earth's surface. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles to settle in place. The particles that form a sedimentary rock are called sediment, and may be composed of geological detritus (minerals) or biological detritus (organic matter). Before being deposited, the geological detritus was formed by weathering and erosion from the source area, and then transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, ice, mass movement or glaciers, which are called agents of denudation. Biological detritus was formed by bodies and parts (mainly shells) of dead aquatic organisms, as well as their fecal mass, suspended in water and slowly piling up on the floor of water bodies (marine snow). Sedimentation may also occur as dissolved minerals precipitate from water solution.
The sedimentary rock cover of the continents of the Earth's crust is extensive (73% of the Earth's current land surface[1]), but the total contribution of sedimentary rocks is estimated to be only 8% of the total volume of the crust.[2] Sedimentary rocks are only a thin veneer over a crust consisting mainly of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rocks are deposited in layers as strata, forming a structure called bedding. The study of sedimentary rocks and rock strata provides information about the subsurface that is useful for civil engineering, for example in the construction of roads, houses, tunnels, canals or other structures. Sedimentary rocks are also important sources of natural resources like coal, fossil fuels, drinking water or ores.
Dear Ijaz
A sediment is a particle of solid, loose pieces of rocks (in the form of sand, silt, clay, and gravel), or the remains of living organisms. Sediment is material that has been eroded, transported and deposited by wind, running water, waves, and ice in a place.
These rocks can also form from by the evaporation of seawater, or the settling of the remains of organisms in a water body. Sediment can become compacted, cemented and are foundin layers. Sedimentary rock is often found in layers.
I hope to help your question
Best regards
Irving
Weathering and erosion are the processes that form and transport sediment.
Sedimentation, burial and lithification are the processes that transform weathering products into sedimentary rocks.
Sediments and the environments in which they form are fundamentally divided into clastic and chemical:
Clastic sediments are made of physically transported and deposited particles (they may later gain chemically grown cement during diagenesis)
Chemical sediments are grown from solution, organically or inorganically; biochemical sediment more specifically refers to minerals grown from solution by organisms.
Sedimentary rocks make up only about 5% of the Earth's lithosphere, but they actually represent about 75% of the rocks exposed at the surface.
These rocks provides many clues as to where and how the rocks may have formed. Fossils, which represent the traces or remains of extinct life forms preserved in sedimentary rocks, allow us to study the history of life on Earth. Sedimentary rocks also have important commercial value as a source of petroleum, ground water, building materials, and economically valuable mineral deposits such as aluminum, gold, iron and others.
Anything lying on Earth's surface today ( including an abandoned car) can become part of a sedimentary rock in the future if it can be buried and does not dissolve before it can be compacted and cemented.
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