Objectives for the topic: Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks

Reading: Chapter 6 in Tarbuck and Lutgens

Images to understand: 6.3, 4, 5, 10, A (box 6.1), 14, 17, 18, 20, C-H (box 6.3)

After completing this topic, the student will be able to:

1. Recognize that sedimentary rocks are complex to classify, but only three are very common: shale, sandstone, and limestone.
2. Describe how you would distinguish an igneous rock from a sedimentary rock.
3. Describe the factors that characterize a sediment [texture (grain size, grain shape, grain composition, and uniformity of size) and composition].
4. Explain how those factors are used to classify a sedimentary rock as clastic, crystalline or organic.
5. Explain how those factors are used to interpret the environment of deposition (using the following examples: breccia, graywacke, mudstone, chert, and coal.
6. Describe the process of lithification.
7. List two different ways that limestone forms.
8. Explain what the following sedimentary structures indicate about the depositional environment in which they formed: ripples, cross-bedding, mudcracks, and graded bedding.
9. Identify the following depositional environments, and distinguish between continental, transitional, and marine:
   • alluvial fan
   • stream
   • playa lake
   • dune
   • beach
   • delta
   • continental shelf
   • abyssal plain
10. Define fossils and explain their value to a geologist studying a sedimentary sequence.
11. Explain how a sequence of sedimentary layers can indicate changes in the environment over time (e.g. sea level changes).
12. Explain the statement "sedimentary rocks can be read like the open pages of a history book."
13. Describe the depositional environments that form petroleum and coal.