Questions related to sediments and sedimentary rocks: The Dynamic Earth

1. What are the major steps in the development of a typical clastic sedimentary formation? A: weathering, erosion, transportation, deposition, burial, compaction and cementation. Compaction and cementation are the primary processes in the lithification of a sedimentary rock.
2. Name a common non-marine depositional environment.
3. Name a common depositional environment along the coastline of an ocean.
4. Name a common marine depositional environment.
5. What geologic process involves the breakdown and alteration of rocks at Earth's surface through interaction with water and the atmosphere?
6. What are two main types of weathering?
7. Does the volume of a mass of water stay the same, contract or expand as it passes from the liquid to the solid state?
8. What is the category of sedimentary rocks that are composed of the broken and worn particles of older geologic materials that have been deposited by wind or water?
9. What is the type of sedimentary rock that is composed primarily of gravel-size particles?
10. How big are gravel-sized particles?
11. How big are sand-sized particles?
12. What is the name of the sedimentary rock formed by micro-crystalline quartz?
13. What are some of the organisms with silica tests (shells) that contribute to deep-sea layers of micro-crystalline quartz?
14. What is the name of a sedimentary deposit formed under conditions of high evaporation and composed of sodium chloride?
15. What is the name of a sedimentary deposit formed under conditions of high evaporation and composed of hydrous calcium sulfate (CaSO₄^.2H₂O)?
16. What is the general name of sedimentary deposits formed under conditions of high evaporation?
17. What sort of bedding develops as particles move in wind or water currents, forming ripple marks or dunes?
18. What sort of bedding develops as particles of different sizes settle out of turbulent sediment-laden water as it loses velocity?
19. What feature, that is commonly encountered in continental sedimentary strata, indicates that the fine-grained sediments were initially wet but then dried in contact with the air?
20. What is the type of sedimentary rock that is composed primarily of sand-size particles?
21. What is the type of sedimentary rock that is composed primarily of silt-size particles?
22. Which is bigger: clay-sized or silt-sized particles?
23. What is the common name for a sedimentary deposit that is composed of a mixture of silt and clay?
24. What do we call a very fine-grained sedimentary rock that breaks along irregular surfaces that are approximately parallel to each other and to the original bedding surfaces (laminae)?
25. What is the most common mineral in a sandstone whose grains have been subjected to prolonged transportation, or perhaps to repeated cycles of deposition, erosion and transportation?
26. What is the primary mineral in limestone?
27. In what type geological environment does limestone typically form?
28. What is the name of the sedimentary rock formed from the calcium-magnesium carbonate mineral dolomite?
29. What is a fossil? (http://www.baylor.edu/Geology/index.php?id=26726)
30. What is a transgression, as the term is used by sedimentary geologists?
31. What is a regression, as the term is used by sedimentary geologists?

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