Identifying Rocks

Sedimentary rocks

• Rocks are partly identified by origin:• Igneous

• Sedimentary• Metamorphic

Sedimentary Rocks

Wow!

• Seventy percent of all the rocks on earth are sedimentary rocks.

How are sedimentary rocks formed?

• Several Steps

• Erosion• Deposition• Compaction• Cementation

Erosion/Weathering• Occurs when running water or wind loosens

and carries away fragments of rocks.

Erosion

• Erosion is the breakdown of the continents and the land around you.

Erosion is destructive!!!

What causes erosion?• Wind, water, heat, cold, rain, waves, grinding

ice

• Boulders become sand. Mountains are rained on and become hills. The pieces of the mountain become smaller pieces and go down the sides of hills. Weathering and erosion always happen in a downhill direction.

Fire Island Erosion

Erosion

2. Deposition

When the sediments settle out of the wind or water.The Sediment will sink to bottom of lake or ocean

The sediments are deposited into a body of water like you are depositing

money in a bank

Deposition

Compaction

• It is a process• Thick layers of sediment build up• Layers become heavy and press down on

layers beneath• Sediments are pressed together

Compaction

Compaction Diagram

3. Cementation

• Word connection- cement– First Minerals in rock dissolve– Next, cement seeps into spaces between particles– Then, dissolved minerals crystallize and GLUE the

particles together

See the cement? See the large pebbles?

Compaction and Cementation

• These processes cause loose sediments to turn into rocks

• This takes millions of years!!!!

• http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es0604/es0604page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

• grains of different sizes settle under the action of gravity. • adding the pressure causes compaction (center). • Cementation (right) is one of the final processes that turns sediment into

rock.

Types of Sedimentary RocksClastic- formed by rock fragments squeezed together

Conglomerate

• Conglomerate is a sedimentary rock • contains rounded particles/pebbles that are

cemented together• Has a large range of particle sizes

Organic

• made from living things (coral, clams, oysters, snails, shells, skeletons, leaves)– Coal– Limestone(chalk)

Organic Sedimentary Rock with Fossils

Plant fossils

Chemical

• when minerals dissolve in a solution and crystallize

• Calcite to limestone• Halite to mineral salt• gypsum

In September, 2012, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity discovered an outcrop of conglomerate exposed on the surface of Mars

Martian Conglomerate: This image was acquired by NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. It shows an outcrop of conglomerate and some pebble-size

weathering debris. The round pebbles are too large to have been moved and shaped by wind, thus they had to have been transported a significant distance by water. This photo from September 2012 was the strongest evidence of the

existence of water on Mars that had been obtained at that time.

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