Unconsolidated Sediments

 

Other Places Minerals Are Found

Weathering processes break large rocks into smaller ones, in processes that can work on surfaces (immediately resulting in fine particles) such as sandblasting, or in processes that gradually turn large rocks into smaller and smaller ones, such as the freezing and thawing of water in pores or crevices which can divide a large rock in two.

Weathering can also include dissolving water soluble minerals, often followed by the precipitation of those (or related) minerals at another site. The precipitation can be caused by evaporation increasing the concentration of a chemical (yielding evaporites such as halite), by a change of temperature and/or pressure that decreases the solubility of a chemical (the process that yields most quartz crystals), by a change of chemistry (PH changes, oxidation, etc.), or by the action of living creatures such as diatoms (eventually yielding chalk or limestone beds).

The initial result of many weathering processes are unconsolidated sediments, but these loose accumulations of material can also form from volcanic processes. Over time, most unconsolidated sediments will harden into sedimentary rocks.

ROCKS
 IGNEOUS
  ANDESITE
  ANORTHOSITE
  BASALT
  CARBONATITE
  DACITE
  DIORITE
  DUNITE
  GABBRO
  GRANITE
  KIMBERLITE
  KOMATIITE
  LAMPROPHYRES
  MONZONITE
  OBSIDIAN
  PEGMATITE
  PERIDOTITE
  PUMICE
  PYROXENITE
  RHYOLITE
  SCORIA
  SYENITE
  
 METAMORPHIC
  GNEISS
  MARBLE
  QUARTZITE
  PHYLLITE
  SCHIST
  SERPENTINITE
  SLATE
  SOAPSTONE
 
 SEDIMENTARY
  ANHYDRITE
  BANDED IRON FORMATION
  BRECCIA
  CHALK
  CHERT
  COAL
  CONGLOMERATE
  COQUINA
  DOLOMITE
  GYPSUM
  HALITE
  LIMESTONE
  MUDSTONE
  PHOSPHORITE
  SANDSTONE
  SHALE
  SILTSTONE
  TILLITE
 
UNCONSOLIDATED SEDIMENTS
  ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS
  LAHARS
  MORAINES
  PEAT
  SANDS
  SOILS
  TEPHRA
  TILLS
  ORES
  MINING TALUS PILES
 

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