Petrology of Sedimentary Rock

Texture and Structure

 Transport Effects
• Sediments are modified by transport.
• Sorting: uniformity of grain size.
• Rounding: relative sphericity. Sediment grains
start out as angular grains. With transport,
sediments become more spherical.
• Maturity: unstable minerals (feldspar, micas)
are removed with transport and by chemical
weathering.
 Sediment Texture
• Definition: refers to the shape, size, and three-
dimensional arrangement of the particles that
make up sediment or sedimentary rock.
1. Grain size
2. Grain sorting
3. Grain shape
4. Fabric
5. Porosity and permeability
1. Grain size
 Conglomerate vs Breccia
Conglomerate
• Both are composed of
particles greater than 2
mm in diameter.
• Conglomerate consists
of rounded gravels.
• Breccia is made of
Breccia
large angular particles.
• Indicates distant of
transportation from
source.
 2. Grain sorting

3. Grain shape

Poorly
Very angular Angular Subangular Rounded Well rounded
rounded
Textural maturity classification
 4. Sediment fabric
• Fabric refers to the textural characteristics
displayed by aggregates of grains.
1. Grain packing: function of the size and shape of
grains and the post deposition physical and chemical
processes that bring about compaction of sediment.
2. Grain orientation: function of the physical processes
and conditions operating at the time of deposition.
Original grain orientation can be modified after
deposition by the activity of organism (bioturbation)
and to some extent by the processes of compaction
during diagenesis.
Sediment fabric

Grain supported Matrix supported

 Paralel Perpendicular Imbricated

Important for paleocurrent estimation

5. Porosity and Permeability
• Porosity: ratio of pore space in a
sediment or sedimentary rock to
the total volume of the rock.
– Primary Porosity
1. Intergranular or interparticle; pore
space between grains.
2. Intragranular or intraparticle; pore
space within grains.
3. Intercrystalline; pore space between
crystals.
– Secondary Porosity
1. Solution porosity; dissolution of
cement or framework grains.
2. Intercrystalline porosity; arising from
pore space in cements or among other
authigenic minerals.
3. Fracture porosity; fracturing by
tectonic forces or by process of
compaction and desiccation.
• Permeability: ability of a medium
to transmit a fluid.

Choquette and Pray (1970)

Volume (%) estimation diagram
 Sediment Structures
• Preserve historic information about earth
processes.
• Physical processes by water and/or wind.
• Biogenic origin; formed by burrowing, boring,
browsing.
1. Bedding
2. Irregular stratification
3. Bedding-plane markings
4. Other structures
Thickness of beds and laminae
Campbell (1967)
 Graded Bedding
• Graded beds are strata characterized by gradual but distinct
vertical changes in grain size.
• Normal grading: gradually coarse in the bottom to finer at the
top.
• Reverse or inverse grading: finer at bottom and coarser at the
top.
• Bouma sequence (1962; ideal graded bedding):
A. Massif, well graded
B. Lower parallel laminae
C. Ripple cross-laminated
D. Upper parallel laminae
E. Structureless mud unit
A

A
 Cross bedding
• Strata in which internal layers, or foresets, dip at a distinct angle to
the surfaces that bound the sets of cross-beds.
• Tabular cross-bedding: bounding surface planar.
• Trough cross-bedding/festoon bedding: bounding surface curved.
 Ripple cross-lamination
• Ripple cross-lamination: general appearance
of waves when viewed in outcrop sections cut
normal to the wave crests.
 Flaser and lenticular bedding
• Flaser and lenticular bedding: thin streaks of
mud occur between sets of ripple laminae.

mud

mud

mud

mud
 Hummocky cross stratification
• Hummocky cross stratification: undulating
sets of cross-laminae that both concave-up
and convex-up.
 Ripple marks
• Ripple marks: ripples in the sediment that occur
owing to traction transport of granular material.
 Irregular stratification
• Irregular structure formed by deformation,
erosional, or biogenic structures.
Slump structure
Stromatolite structure

Slump structure
 Bedding plane marking
• Bedding-plane markings occur on the tops of beds or on
the undersides of beds by transportation activity or
organisms activity.
Mud crack
Ripple mark

Bottom part

Flute cast

Bottom part
 Other structure
Concretion Nodule limestone

Stilolite
 Reference
• Petrology of sedimentary rocks, Boggs, 1992.
• Petrology Igneous, Sedimentary, and
Metamorphic rocks, Blatt and Tracy, 2001.
• A colour guide to the petrography of
carbonate rocks, AAPG Memoir 77, Scholle
and Ulmer-Scholle, 2003.