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Science Discovery Series
Olympus High School
Jeff Taylor
Science Instructor
Get Your High School Diploma Online
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Episode 1Sand Dunes and Sedimentary Rocks
How They Form
Paria Canyon, AZ
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Sandstone• Sandstone are layers of sand-sized particles
that are cemented together.
• The cement determines the strength of the sandstone.
• Sandstone can form from sand dunes, river or lake bottoms, or former beaches.
Grand Staircase-Escalante NM, UT
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Sand Dunes• Sand Dunes form where sand particles are blown in the
wind and then pile up in a place where the wind slows.
• Rain trickles down to the bottom of the dunes.• Minerals that dissolve in water cement the sand and
solidifies the base.
Great Sand Dunes NP, CO
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Lithification
• These sand dunes have lithified when water seeped in and cemented the sand grains.
• Later, winds blew away the loose sand above.
Maui, HI
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Sandstone
• Fossilized sand dunes can be determined by their cross-bedding.
• Cross-bedding are alternating layers that are tilted against each other.
Navajo Sandstone, Big Water, UT
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Navajo Sandstone
They formed in an ancient Sahara-like Desert some 75 million years ago
The Dive, Grand Staircase-Escalante, UT
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PlayasEvaporite Basins
• Salts dissolve from rocks into rainwater• Water gathers at the valley floor to form shallow lakes• Hot summer evaporate the water, leaving just a flat salt layer• This salt can be sodium chloride or a variety of alkaline
substances like gypsum, calcite, or soda.
Carrizo Plain NM, CA
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Gypsum Dunes
• When evaporites from a dry lake are broken into small pieces and blown in the wind, they can pile up into dunes.
• At White Sands, NM the “sand” will dissolve in your mouth!
White Sands NM, NM
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Lake or Ocean Sandstones
• Sandstone layers that are completely horizontal are usually formed at the bottom of lakes or the ocean.
Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, UT
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Lake and Ocean Settling
• When sediment flowing down a river meet a lake, they drop out and settle to the bottom to form a flat layer.
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Lake Sediments• Here, changing lake levels leave horizontal
beds of sediments.
When buried, they will compact into stone.
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River Deposited Sandstones
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Ripple Marks
• Ripple marks are a sign on an ancient stream or lake shore
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Conglomerates
• Conglomerates are a mixture of rock sizes that form in rivers.
• Large rocks are cemented together with sand, mud, and salts.
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Conglomerates forming today• This stream bed is making a conglomerate
layer for future aliens to discover
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Mudcracks and Silt Layers
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Red Sandstones
• Stained by iron oxide (rust) minerals
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Soft Sandstones
• Some sandstones are so weakly cemented, that they “melt” when it rains and fall apart in your hands.
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Blue Sandstones Stained by Copper
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Various Minerals in the Rock
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Siltstones
• Siltstones are similar to sandstone, but the grains are much finer.
• They form at the bottom of the ocean and lakes where very small particles settle to the bottom.
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Clays and Mudstones• In the ocean or lake bottoms where
microscopic particles settle, mud and clays cement together for form layered rock.
• Mudstones are strong and well cemented.• Clays tend to be weaker and easily crumble.
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HoodoosConglomerate Capping Sandstone
Hoodoo’s form where strong rock protects weaker rock underneath
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Volcanic Ash• Volcanic ash can settle onto the ground or into lakes to
form sediments.
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Bentonite Clays• Bentonite clays form when volcanic ash
from eruptions lands in water.• This ash mixes with the mud and organic
matter for form a weak, puffy layer, that is extremely sticky when wet.
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More Bentonite Clay
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Evaporites• When lakes or shallow ocean areas
evaporate, they leave their salts behind.
• These salts form layers of crystals.
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Tufa• When springs in a soda lake emerge, they
deposit their minerals in large pillars.
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Evaporite Basin• Water drains down into the basin.• The water evaporates, leaving salts behind
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Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas• When organic matter such as dead plants get
buried in mud it can be preserved as layers of coal.
• Oil and Natural gas pockets can also form under these layers, typically with the help of heat underground.
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Petrified Wood and Fossils
• Hard organic remains such as tree trunks, bones, and teeth can be fossilized as their natural minerals get replaced by other minerals.
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Fossils• The calcium and carbon of
Petrified wood and fossil bones are often replaced by quartz or magnesium.
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Limestone
• When the shells of clams, snails, or coral reefs are preserved in the ocean sediments, limestone forms.
• Limestone is made of Calcium Carbonate.• Limestone is a sure sign that an area was
tropical once.
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Travertine
• Limestone dissolves in water.• Where water trickles down into the layers,
it eats away at the rock forming caves and sinkholes.
• When the water drips in the caves and evaporates, it leaves the limestone behind again forming Stalactites.
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Limestone Continued…
• Since limestone dissolves in water, it forms steep and interesting landscapes due to erosion.
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More Limestone features
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More Limestone Features
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Limestone
• Since Limestone is weak, it was often carved into for ancient tombs
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Glacial Till
• Glaciers carve and pulverize rock into silt.• This silt is transported by ice and melt
water to the edge of the glacier.• Here it forms layers that are easily broken.
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Erosion
• Rivers and rain carve deep canyons into sedimentary rock.
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Zion Canyon
• 2000 feet deep sand dunes cut by the river
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Sandstone Canyons
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Grand Canyon
• 5000 ft deep with alternating layers of limestone, sandstone, siltstones, and fossils going back over 1 billion years.
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Slot Canyons• Occasional torrents of water from flash
floods can carve deep narrow canyons into sandstone.
• Some storms will flood this canyon with water 80 feet high!
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From Rock to Rock
• Rivers deposit the sand from erosion in new locations to become new sandstone layers for future Geologists!
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Erosion
• Rain, Ice, and Wind can combine to form some strange erosional features!
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Arches
• Wind erosion is primarily responsible for natural arches.
• Ice and rain also play a role in weakening lower layers of rock.
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Quiz – How did this form?
• Devil’s Golf Course
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Tilting
• Plate movements can cause the layers be be thrust upwards, downwards, or twisted.