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SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
Prepared by Dr. F. Clark
Department of Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences, University of Alberta
August 06
THE OLD WAY – TWO CHOICES
Both rocks exhibit clastic textures, but belong to different groups. The
left specimen has clasts of quartz and chert, stable silicate grains,
and is thus siliciclastic. The specimen on the right has clasts
consisting of intact and fragmented mollusc shells. The calcium
carbonate shells are formed by organic extraction of calcium and
bicarbonate ions from sea water, and so the rock is biochemical.
Fossils Don’t Make It Biochemical