5.1: The Unique Properties of Water. Water plays a role in the formation of most sedimentary rocks. It is one of the main agents involved in creating the minerals in chemical sedimentary rock. It also is a weathering and erosion agent, producing the grains that become detrital sedimentary rock. Several special properties make water an ...

Sep 9, 2019 · Sedimentary rocks often show distinctive patterns that are unrelated to their type of rock, yet reflect events or conditions during deposition and are called sedimentary structures. These patterns in the rocks can be very informative to geologists attempting to reconstruct the environment in which a sedimentary rock was formed.

Classification systems. In general, geologists have attempted to classify sedimentary rocks on a natural basis, but some schemes have genetic implications (i.e.,knowledge of origin of a particular rock type is assumed), and many classifications reflect the philosophy, training, and experience of those who propound them.

When sedimentary rock has a reddish color, it often indicates that the sediment was exposed to oxygen (in the air) before or during burial. For example, the Navajo Sandstone seen in many national parks and monuments (such as Zion and Grand Staircase-Escalante) formed from ancient desert sand dunes. Other red rock (such as some of the siltstone ...

Aug 13, 2010 · The oldest whole rocks found so far date back about 4.28 billion years. They were found in 2001 by geologists excavating near Canada's Hudson Bay in northern Quebec, andthe research appeared in ...

Eastward, this wedge of sediments thickens to more than 8,000 feet at the Atlantic coast line. Beyond this line is the Atlantic Continental Shelf Province, the submerged continuation of the Coastal Plain, which extends eastward for at least another 75 miles where the sediments attain a maximum thickness of about 40,000 feet.

Sedimentary Rocks Most of the rocks native to Illinois are sedimentary rocks. Some are made of small pieces of shells, plant and animal remains, and weathered fragments of other rocks (sediments) that have been moved by rivers, waves, winds, or ice (glaciers).

Geology - Chapter 6: Sedimentary Rocks. God's laws of nature operate on a daily basis to produce many different types of landforms. One of the most visible of these are sedimentary rock formations. ... typically this is a good location to start another formation. This is not always the case, though. Some formations contain many small layers of ...

Greywacke or graywacke (German grauwacke, signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lithic fragments set in a compact, clay-fine matrix.It is a texturally immature sedimentary rock generally found in Paleozoic strata.