Calcisiltite

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Calcisiltite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) silt-size carbonate grains. These grains consist either of the silt-size particles of ooids, fragments of fossil shells, fragments of older limestones and dolomites, intraclasts, pellets, other carbonate grains, or some combination of these. Calcisiltite is the carbonate equivalent of a siltstone. [1] [2] Calcisiltites can accumulate in a wide variety of coastal, lacustrine, and marine environments. It is typically the product of abrasion and bioerosion. [2] [3]

Limestone Sedimentary rocks made of calcium carbonate

Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). A closely related rock is dolomite, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2. In fact, in old USGS publications, dolomite was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones.

Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay, whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as sediment mixed in suspension with water and soil in a body of water such as a river. It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body, like mudflows from landslides. Silt has a moderate specific area with a typically non-sticky, plastic feel. Silt usually has a floury feel when dry, and a slippery feel when wet. Silt can be visually observed with a hand lens, exhibiting a sparkly appearance. It also can be felt by the tongue as granular when placed on the front teeth.

Carbonate rock

Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite (different crystal forms of CaCO3) and dolomite, also known as dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2).

The term calcisiltite was not an original part of the calcilutite, calcarenite and calcirudite classification system for limestones, which Grabau [4] [5] proposed in 1903. Instead, the term calcisiltite was created by Kay [6] in 1951 for limestone consisting predominantly of detrital silt-size, 0.062 to 0.002 mm, grains. As a result, calcisiltite is equivalent to the coarser part of "calcilutite" as it was originally proposed by Grabau and as calcilutite is normally defined and used by geologists. Calcisiltite is the carbonate equivalent of siltstone. [2] [7]

Calcilutite is a type of limestone that is composed of predominantly, more than 50 percent, of either clay-size or both silt-size and clay-size detrital (transported) carbonate grains. These grains consist either of fossil fragments, ooids, intraclasts, pellets, other grains, or some combination of them. The term calcilutite was originally proposed in 1903 by Grabau as a part of his calcilutite, calcarenite and calcirudite classification system based upon the size of the detrital grains composing a limestone. In the original classification of limestone according to the dominant grain-size, calcisiltites were not named and are classified as calcilutite. In this classification, which the majority of geologists follow, a calcilutite consists of both silt- and clay-size, less than 0.062 mm in diameter, grains. It is the carbonate equivalent of a mudstone. Calcilutites can accumulate in a wide variety of marine and lacustrine environments.

Calcarenite A type of limestone that is composed predominantly of sand-size grains

Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) sand-size, carbonate grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either corals, shells, ooids, intraclasts, pellets, fragments of older limestones and dolomites, other carbonate grains, or some combination of these. Calcarenite is the carbonate equivalent of a sandstone. The term calcarenite was originally proposed in 1903 by Grabau as a part of his calcilutite, calcarenite and calcirudite carbonate classification system based upon the size of the detrital grains composing a limestone. Calcarenites can accumulate in a wide variety of marine and nonmarine environments. They can consist of grains of carbonate that have accumulated either as coastal sand dunes (eolianites), beaches, offshore bars and shoals, turbidites, or other depositional settings.

Calcirudite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of carbonate grains that are larger in size than sand. The grains can consist of either fragments of fossils, fragments of older limestones and dolomites, other carbonate grains, or some combination of these. The term calcirudite was originally proposed in 1903 by Grabau as a part of his calcilutite, calcarenite and calcirudite classification system based upon the size of the detrital grains composing a limestone. Depending on roundness of the grains, calcirudite is the carbonate equivalent of either a breccia, in the case of predominantly angular grains, or conglomerate, in the case of predominantly rounded grains. Calcirudites can accumulate in a wide variety of coastal, lacustrine, and marine environments.

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Sandstone A clastic sedimentary rock composed mostly of sand-sized particles

Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized mineral particles or rock fragments.

Sedimentary rock Rock formed by the deposition and subsequent cementation of material

Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of small particles and subsequent cementation of mineral or organic particles on the floor of oceans or other bodies of water at the Earth's surface. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles to settle in place. The particles that form a sedimentary rock are called sediment, and may be composed of geological detritus (minerals) or biological detritus. Before being deposited, the geological detritus was formed by weathering and erosion from the source area, and then transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, ice, mass movement or glaciers, which are called agents of denudation. Biological detritus was formed by bodies and parts of dead aquatic organisms, as well as their fecal mass, suspended in water and slowly piling up on the floor of water bodies. Sedimentation may also occur as dissolved minerals precipitate from water solution.

Sedimentology encompasses the study of modern sediments such as sand, silt, and clay, and the processes that result in their formation, transport, deposition and diagenesis. Sedimentologists apply their understanding of modern processes to interpret geologic history through observations of sedimentary rocks and sedimentary structures.

Mudstone Fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds

Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.063 millimetres (0.0025 in) with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time, the platy clay minerals may become aligned, with the appearance of fissility or parallel layering. This finely bedded material that splits readily into thin layers is called shale, as distinct from mudstone. The lack of fissility or layering in mudstone may be due to either original texture or the disruption of layering by burrowing organisms in the sediment prior to lithification. Mud rocks such as mudstone and shale account for some 65% of all sedimentary rocks. Mudstone looks like hardened clay and, depending upon the circumstances under which it was formed, it may show cracks or fissures, like a sun-baked clay deposit.

Pelite pelitic sedimentary rock family; old terminology, clayey sedimentary rock

A pelite or metapelite is a metamorphosed fine-grained sedimentary rock, i.e. mudstone or siltstone. The term was earlier used by geologists to describe a clay-rich, fine-grained clastic sediment or sedimentary rock, i.e. mud or a mudstone, the metamorphosed version of which would technically have been a metapelite. It was equivalent to the now little-used Latin-derived term lutite. A semipelite is defined in part as having similar chemical composition but being of a crystalloblastic nature.

Mudrock Class of fine grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks

Mudrocks are a class of fine grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include: siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than 0.0625 mm and are too small to study readily in the field. At first sight the rock types look quite similar; however, there are important differences in composition and nomenclature. There has been a great deal of disagreement involving the classification of mudrocks. There are a few important hurdles to classification, including:

  1. Mudrocks are the least understood, and one of the most understudied sedimentary rocks to date
  2. It is difficult to study mudrock constituents, due to their diminutive size and susceptibility to weathering on outcrops
  3. And most importantly, there is more than one classification scheme accepted by scientists
Allochem

Allochem is a term introduced by Folk to describe the recognisable "grains" in carbonate rocks. Any fragment from around 0.5 mm upwards in size may be considered an allochem. Examples would include ooids, peloids, oncolites, pellets, fossil or pre-existing carbonate fragments. Fragments are still termed allochems if they have undergone chemical transformations – for example if an aragonite shell were to dissolve and be later replaced by calcite, the replacement would still be deemed an allochem.

Clastic rock type of sedimentary rock

Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus, chunks and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks by physical weathering. Geologists use the term clastic with reference to sedimentary rocks as well as to particles in sediment transport whether in suspension or as bed load, and in sediment deposits.

Wackestone A mud-supported carbonate rock that contains greater than 10% grains

Under the Dunham classification system of limestones, a wackestone is defined as a mud-supported carbonate rock that contains greater than 10% grains. Most recently, this definition has been clarified as a carbonate-dominated rock in which the carbonate mud component supports a fabric comprising 10% or more very fine-sand grade or larger grains but where less than 10% of the rock is formed of grains larger than sand grade .

Lutite is old terminology, which is not widely used, by Earth scientists in field descriptions for fine-grained, sedimentary rocks, which are composed of silt-size sediment, clay-size sediment, or a mixture of both. When mixed with water lutites often disintegrate into mud. Because this is a field term, there is a lack of any precise definition for it based upon specific grain-size characteristics. Lutites include a variety of fine-grained sedimentary rocks, including calcisiltite, calcilutite, claystone, mudstone, shale, and siltstone. It is equivalent to the term mudstone and the Greek-derived term pelite. Lutite was first used in 1904 by Grabau, who derived it from the Latin word for mud. He also proposed a number of prefixes to be used with and attached to "lutite" in order to designated various types of lutites. None of these prefixes are used by Earth scientists nowadays.

Rudite is a general name used for a sedimentary rocks that are composed of rounded or angular detrital grains, i.e. granules, pebbles, cobbles, and boulders, which are coarser than sand in size. Rudites include sedimentary rocks composed of both siliciclastic, i.e. conglomerate and breccia, and carbonate grains, i.e. calcirudite and rudstone. This term is equivalent to the Greek-derived term, psephite. Rudite was initially proposed by Grabau as "rudyte." It is derived from the Latin word, "rudus," for "crushed stone," "rubbish," "debris," and "rubble."

Peloid (geology)

Peloids are allochems that are composed of micrite, irrespective of size, shape, or origin. The two primary types of peloids are pellets and intraclasts. Another type of peloid is pseudo-oolith.

Belt Supergroup

The Belt Supergroup is an assemblage of primarily fine-grained sedimentary rocks and mafic intrusive rocks of late Precambrian (Mesoproterozoic) age. It is more than 15 kilometres (10 mi) thick, covers an area of some 200,000 km2, and is considered to be one of the world's best-exposed and most accessible sequences of Mesoproterozoic rocks. It was named after the Big Belt Mountains in west-central Montana. It is present in western Montana and northern Idaho, with minor occurrences in northwestern Washington and western Wyoming. It extends into Canada where the equivalent rocks, which are called the Purcell Supergroup, are exposed in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta. The rocks of the Belt Supergroup contain economically significant deposits of lead, zinc, silver, copper, gold, and other metals in a number of areas, and some of the Belt rocks contain fossil stromatolites.

The Beaverhill Lake Group is a geologic unit of Middle Devonian to Late Devonian age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin that is present in the southwestern Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia and Alberta. It was named by the geological staff of Imperial Oil in 1950 for Beaverhill Lake, Alberta, based on the core from a well that they had drilled southeast of the lake, near Ryley, Alberta.

Pellets (petrology)

Pellets are small spherical to ovoid or rod-shaped grains that are common component of many limestones. They are typically 0.03 to 0.3 mm long and composed of carbonate mud (micrite). Their most common size is 0.04 to 0.08 mm. Pellets typically lack any internal structure and are remarkably uniform in size and shape in any single limestone sample. They consist either of aggregated carbonate mud, precipitated calcium carbonate, or a mixture of both. They either are or were composed either of aragonite, calcite, or a mixture of both. Also, pellets composed of either glauconite or phosphorite are common in marine sedimentary rocks. Pellets occur in Precambrian through Phanerozoic strata. They are an important component mainly in Phanerozoic strata. The consensus among sedimentologists and petrographers is that pellets are the fecal products of invertebrate organisms because of their constant size, shape, and extra-high content of organic matter.

References

  1. ↑ Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, J.A., eds. (2005) Glossary of Geology (5th ed.). Alexandria, Virginia, American Geological Institute. 779 pp. ISBN   0-922152-76-4
  2. 1 2 3 Flügel, E. (2010) Microfacies of Carbonate Rocks, 2nd ed. Springer-Verlag Berlin, Germany. 976 pp. ISBN   978-3-540-22016-9
  3. ↑ Scholle, P.A., D.G. Bebout, and C.H. Moore (1983) Carbonate Depositional Environments. Memoir no. 33. Tulsa, Oklahoma, American Association of Petroleum Geologists. 708 pp. ISBN   978-0-89181-310-1
  4. ↑ Grabau, A.W. (1903) Paleozoic coral reefs. Geological Society of America Bulletin. vol. 14, pp. 337-352.
  5. ↑ Grabau, A.W. (1904) On the classification of sedimentary rocks. American Geologist. vol. 33, pp. 228-247.
  6. ↑ Kay, G.M. (1951) North American geosynclines. Memoir no. 48. Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America. 143 pp.
  7. ↑ Folk, R.L., 1962, Spectral subdivision of limestone types. In Ham, W. E.. Classification of carbonate rocks. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir. no. 1, pp. 62-84.


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