Sedimentary Rock: Forms when sediments become pressed or cemented together, or when sediments precipitate out of solution.

Sediments: Are loose materials such as rock fragments, mineral grains, and bits of plant and animal remains that have been transported.

Long ago water, wind, and ice picked up sediments and carried it. Eventually they dropped the sediments in places where it collected into layers. They are cemented or compacted together. Coarser sediments are “glued” together. Water that contains dissolved minerals seeps between the coarse pieces of sediment. The water evaporates, and mineral crystals form.

The Grand Canyon formed millions of years ago when the Colorado River eroded layers of Sedimentary rock.

This is the Grand Canyon!

Chemical Rock: Forms from minerals precipitated from a solution or are left behind when a solution evaporates.

Clastic Rock: Can be made of the broken fragments of plants and animals, but most are made from the broken fragment of fragments or other rocks.

Types of Clastic Rock

- Conglomerates - Breccia

Types of Chemical Rock

- Agate - Limestone - Stalcite - Calcite - Stalagmite

Compaction: Pressure from the upper layers pushes down on the lower layers. If the sediments are very small, they can stick together and form solid rock. This process is called Compaction.

Cementation: Is when water soaks through rock and soil. The solution of water and dissolved minerals moves through the open spaces between sediments. The natural cement are deposited around the pieces of sediment and they stick together.

The word clastic comes from the Greek word klastos, which means “broken.”

The “Notre Dame” in Paris, France, is made of Limestone.

This is Cementation! That is what it is, layer upon layer upon layer.

Seventy-five percent of Earth’s rocks are Sedimentary rocks.

The salt that we use every day is made from a Sedimentary Rock called Halite.

Ashley Borchardt