1. Title-Grain Size of Lithogenous River Sediments
2. Purpose-The purpose of this experiment is to determine the grain sizes of lithogenous
river sediments and measure the mass of each grain size of sediment.
Question: What are the grain sizes of rocks in lithogenous river sediment? What percent
of river sediment is made up by pebbles/small pebbles (large granules)/granules/sand?
3. Hypothesis (predictions)
-I predict that river sediments contain (boulders, cobbles, pebbles, granules, sand,
silt, clay).
-I predict that river sediment is made up of ____% boulders, ____% cobbles,
___% pebbles (large) ____% small pebbles (large granules) ___% granules ___%
sand.
4. Procedure
1. Obtain materials (4 paper plates, 1 ruler, 1 bag of screens, 1 sample of
lithogenous river sediment, and 1 balance scale)
2. Tare scale
3. Measure total mass of river sediment (subtract mass of dish to obtain mass of
sediment)
4. Separate sediments into 4 categories
5. Measure the length of each sediment using a ruler and magnifying lens to
determine the grain size (pebbles, small pebbles (large granules) granules, and
sand)
6. Determine mass of each type of sediment
5. Data Table
Grain Name
Pebble
Small Pebbles (large
granules)
Granules
Sand
Total
Mass (g)
% of Total Mass
100
Observations:
6. Results (graph here-bar or pie for this lab. Click on insert, picture, and chart. Format
the cells to reflect % of total mass and word will make your graph for you!)
7. Conclusion