What is the depositional environment of limestone?

Limestone forms in a deep marine environment from precipitation of calcium carbonate. Shale is made of fine clay particles, and therefore indicates deposition in relatively still water. In contrast, sandstone is made of slightly larger grains and therefore deposition of sand can happen in water that is moving slowly.

Where is quartz sandstone deposited?

The depositional environments associated with sandstones are very important and they range from terrestrial to deep marine, including: Fluvial (alluvial fans, river sediments); Deltaic (levees, distributary deposits ,mouth bars and other sediments formed where river meets a lake or sea); Aeolian(wind-blown dune sands …

Where do quartz sandstones generally form?

Pure quartz sandstones, especially when abundant, form in areas of great tectonic stability. This is because if any clastic sourcelands are available they will weather to produce at least shales, and possibly feldspars and lithics. Quartz sandstones are often associated with carbonate rocks.

Where do you find Wacke?

Supporting the turbidity current origin theory is that deposits of greywacke are found on the edges of the continental shelves, at the bottoms of oceanic trenches, and at the bases of mountain formational areas. They also occur in association with black shales of deep sea origin.

What is the use of limestone?

Limestone has numerous uses: as a building material, an essential component of concrete (Portland cement), as aggregate for the base of roads, as white pigment or filler in products such as toothpaste or paints, as a chemical feedstock for the production of lime, as a soil conditioner, and as a popular decorative …

What are characteristics of limestone?

Limestone is usually gray, but it may also be white, yellow or brown. It is a soft rock and is easily scratched. It will effervesce readily in any common acid.

What is a probable depositional environment for quartz sandstone?

The two primary sedimentary depositional environments that produce quartz arenites are beaches/upper shoreface and aeolian processes, due to their high residence time, high transport distance, and/or high energy of the environment.

What kind of rock is limestone?

sedimentary rock
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed principally of calcium carbonate (calcite) or the double carbonate of calcium and magnesium (dolomite). It is commonly composed of tiny fossils, shell fragments and other fossilized debris.

How do you identify greywacke?

Although greywacke can look similar to basalt, it differs in that it is commonly veined (with quartz being the vein mineral), and lacks vesicles. Texture – clastic. Grain size – < 0.06 – 2mm, clasts typically angular, visible to the naked eye. Hardness – hard.

What type of rock is limestone?

Where does limestone form in a depositional environment?

Limestone, rock made of the calcium carbonatemineral known as calcite, can form in a variety of depositional environments, from hot spring deposits in lakes to coral reefs in the tropical oceans. Most limestone originates in shallow waters of tropical oceans, and may carry fossils of plants and animals that lived in those environments.

How is greywacke different from other sedimentary rocks?

Greywacke is variation of sandstone that saperate from other to hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz and feldspar.. It is a textural immature sedimentary rock found in the Paleozoic layers. Larger grains can be from sand to pebble length, and matrix materials are in the order of 15% by volume of rocks.

How big is a grain of wacke rock?

Wacke, also called dirty sandstone, sedimentary rock composed of sand-sized grains (0.063–2 mm [0.0025–0.078 inch]) with a fine-grained clay matrix.

How are sedimentary rocks used as depositional environments?

To put together the geologic history of a region, the depositional environments of its sedimentary rocks must be analyzed. By reconstructing depositional environments geologists are able to reconstruct the climates of the past, life forms of the past, and geography of the past-where the mountains, basins, large rivers, and bays of the ocean were.