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Composition of Detrital Sediments

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Practical Sedimentology

Abstract

Composition of sediments refers to the chemical and mineralogical makeup of the constituent particles, which may be individual minerals, combinations of minerals as in rock fragments, organic particles or constituents chemically precipitated in the depositional or diagenetic environment. In this chapter we treat sediments comprising more than 50% detritus from preexisting igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary rocks. Some authors call these clastic sediments, but since most limestones are composed largely of fossil clasts (broken fragments), they too are properly clastic; hence the word detrital (or siliciclastic ) is more definitive. The composition of detrital gravel and sand is dictated by the composition of the source rocks and is influenced by climatic and diagenetic processes (and rarely, by environmental sorting processes); the tectonics of the source area and basin of deposition are also influential insofar as they determine the kinds of source rocks exposed and the rate at which the sediments are buried (see Chapter 2); time is implicit as a factor as well. In contrast, the composition of clay minerals is generally related to climatic and diagenetic processes, and although many clay minerals are derived from the alteration of detrital minerals, it is rare that the original mineral can be definitively identified; many clay minerals also form in the depositional or diagenetic environment by chemical precipitation. Hence only clay minerals derived from preexisting sedimentary rocks are truly detrital, and it is appropriate to treat clays with colloids separately in Chapter 7.

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Authors
  1. Douglas W. Lewis
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  2. David McConchie
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Lewis, D.W., McConchie, D. (1994). Composition of Detrital Sediments. In: Practical Sedimentology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2634-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2634-6_6

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