Sedimentary rock may be broken down into sediment once again by weathering and erosion. It may also form another type of rock. If it becomes buried deep enough within the crust to be subjected to increased temperature and pressure, it may change into metamorphic rock. The entire process is called the rock cycle.

For sediment to become sedimentary rock, it usually undergoes burial, compaction, and cementation. Once they become pieces, these clasts are free to move away from their source rock and they usually do. They are most often transported by water and deposited as layers of sediment.

Sedimentary rocks are formed when sediment is deposited out of air, ice, wind, gravity, or water flows carrying the particles in suspension. This sediment is often formed when weathering and erosion break down a rock into loose material in a source area.

Sedimentary rocks form via clastic sedimentation, chemical sedimentation or biochemical sedimentation.

Four basic processes are involved in the formation of a clastic sedimentary rock: weathering (erosion)caused mainly by friction of waves, transportation where the sediment is carried along by a current, deposition and compaction where the sediment is squashed together to form a rock of this kind.

Bedding. Bedding is often the most obvious feature of a sedimentary rock and consists of lines called bedding planes, which mark the boundaries of different layers of sediment. Most sediments were deposited along a flat surface that was roughly parallel with the depositional surface.

Sedimentary rocks are formed from pieces of other existing rock or organic material. There are three different types of sedimentary rocks: clastic, organic (biological), and chemical.

Common sedimentary rocks include sandstone, limestone, and shale. These rocks often start as sediments carried in rivers and deposited in lakes and oceans.

Sedimentary rock formation Examples of sedimentary rock include: chalk. limestone. sandstone.

Rock layers are also called strata (the plural form of the Latin word stratum), and stratigraphy is the science of strata.

The law of superposition states that rock strata (layers) farthest from the ground surface are the oldest (formed first) and rock strata (layers) closest to the ground surface are the youngest (formed most recently).

A useful way to illustrate how the three main types of rock are related to one another and how changes to rocks happen in a recurring sequence is the rock cycle. It can be presented in a diagram like the one below.

If you see a sedimentary rock outcrop and red layers of sand are on top of pale layers of sand, what do you know for sure about the ages of the two layers? Why do sedimentary rocks have layers of different colors sometimes? Describe the two processes necessary for sediments to harden into rock.

Also, sedimentary rocks are generally less hard than igneous or metamorphic rocks – this is because the lithification process (how a sedimentary rock becomes a rock) does not involve heat or pressure, and sedimentary rocks are kind of just “smooshed” together.

Sedimentary rock is important to the energy sector because this is the type of rock that forms fossil fuels. For example, sedimentary rocks such as shale can contain large amounts of kerogen that can be extracted to obtain oil. This type of shale is known as oil shale.

There are three kinds of rock: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. Igneous rocks form when molten rock (magma or lava) cools and solidifies. Sedimentary rocks originate when particles settle out of water or air, or by precipitation of minerals from water.

These broken pieces of rock are called sediments. The word “Sedimentary” comes from the root word “Sediment”. Sedimentary rocks are usually formed in water. Sedimentary rocks are formed from broken pieces of rocks.

Different colors of sedimentary rock are determined by the environment where they are deposited. Red rocks form where oxygen is present. Darker sediments form when the environment is oxygen poor.