Texture

The physical appearance or character (

) of a rock
Describing Textures:
texture of sedimentary rocks is described as "clastic",
meaning that they are composed of discrete particles that
are compacted and cemented together. An example of a
non-clastic texture would be
crystalline material.
The textures of sedimentary rocks are also important to take note
of and to describe. Features such as grain shape, roundness and
sorting of grains can tell you a lot about the environment in which
the rock was formed. The degree of roundness in the grains as well
as the degree of sorting can reflect the amount of weathering and
transport that the sediment went through. Long transport tends to
result in well-rounded and well-sorted grains, whereas short
transport results in poorly sorted angular grains.

Describing textures in sedimentary rocks includes not

only the grain shape (i.e. roundness) and sorting, but also
features like porosity and intergrain relationships. Pore
space between grains makes a good reservoir for oil, gas, etc.
Intergrain relationships allow us to divide sedimentary
textures into two main categories:
1. crystalline textures (Non-clastic ) : with interlocking grains.
2. clastic textures: with rounded to angular grains that are stuck
together.

Textural Maturity is also related to the degree of roundness and sorting

of the grains. As sediment is transported, the more easily weathered rock
fragments are broken down, leaving those grains which are most stable
and resist weathering. Quartz is a good example of this. The composition
of a rock can tell us a lot about the conditions in which it was formed!

Grain Size Analysis:-

Method of studying soils, sediments, sands, or rock
by determining the size, distribution, and proportion
of selected particles.
Grain size is the most fundamental physical property
of sediment.
- Geologists and Sedimentologists use information on
sediment grain size to study trends in surface processes
related to the dynamic conditions of transportation and
deposition.

- Engineers use grain size to study sample permeability

and stability under load.
- Geochemists use grain size to study kinetic reactions
and the affinities of fine-grained particles and
contaminants.
- Hydrologists use it when studying the movement of
subsurface fluids .
The objectives of a grain-size analysis are to accurately
measure individual particle sizes or hydraulic
equivalents, to determine their frequency distribution,
and to calculate a statistical description that adequately
characterizes the sample.

Heavy Minerals:-
The large variety of often distinctive heavy minerals
found in sediments can provide valuable information
for interpreting stratigraphy and determining the
provenance of a sediment. When minerals of
economic importance such as gold, or kimberlite
indicator minerals such as pyrope, are observed in the
heavy mineral fraction, they can often be traced to a
source in bedrock. Furthermore, the heavy mineral
fraction can provide information on the nature of
geochemical anomalies that would be otherwise
difficult to obtain.