Clastic sedimentary rocks
Dept. of Geology
Prof. Dr. Belal S. Amireh
Jordan University
Course outline
I. Course content:
1- Introduction: Definitions, abundance, distribution, economic value: hydrocarbon and gas
reservoirs, aquifers, economic minerals within the heavy fraction, placer deposits, and quartz
sand.
2- Mineralogy: Light minerals: varieties of quartz, feldspars, rock fragments; heavy minerals:
ultrastables including zircon, tourmaline and rutile, stable (garnet, apatite, epidote, staurolite),
metastable and unstable species (hornblende and pyroxene); micas (muscovite and biotite); clay
minerals including kaolinite, illite, smectite, illite-smectite mixed layers, dickite, chlorite;
glauconite and collophane.
3- Classification and petrography of the various types of sandstone: Quartz arenite, arkose and
feldspathic sandstone, lithic arenites, wackes and greywackes.
4- Factors influencing the mineral composition of sandstones and conglomerates: Provenance,
tectonic setting, paleoclimate dependent weathering, modification through transport, effects of
depositional environment, diagenesis, and uplift.
5- Diagenesis: Definitions, physical processes: compaction, orientation of particles, pressure
solution and microstylolite development; chemical processes including quartz syntaxial
overgrowth, kaolinite neoformation, illite authigenesis, dickite formation, smectite and smectiteillite mixed layers, feldspar epitaxial overgrowth, dolomite and calcite neomorphism,
synsedimentary glauconitization and late diagenetic glauconite, barite, halite and pyrite;
diagenetic history and burial depth reconstruction.
6- Geochemistry of sandstone and argillites: Abundance and accommodation of major, minor,
and trace elements.
7- Depositional environments and related facies: Definition of facies; alluvial environments
including alluvial fans, braided rivers and meandering rivers, lacustrine environments, glaciers;
transitional environments including deltas, shoreline zones, tidal flats, marshes, lagoons and
estuaries; marine environments including shelf, shallow marine, turbidites and deep marine.
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II. Requirements:
1- Mid-term exam (30 marks)
2- Research project (20 marks)
3- Final exam (50 marks).
III. References:
Amireh, B.S., 1987. Sedimentological and Petrological Interplays of the Nubian Series in Jordan
with regard to paleogeography and Diagenesis. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, TU
Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany, 232 pp.
Amireh, B. S., 1991. Mineral composition of the Cambrian-Cretaceous Nubian Series of Jordan:
provenance, tectonic setting and climatological implications. Sedimentary Geology 71, 99-119.
Amireh, B. S., 1994. Heavy and clay minerals as tools in solving stratigraphic problems: A case
study from the Disi Sandstone (Early Ordovician) and the Kurnub Sandstone (Early Cretaceous)
of Jordan. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatsheft 1994, H. 4, 205-222.
Amireh, B., 1994. Diagenesis and burial history of the Cambrian-Cretaceous sandstone series in
Jordan. N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Abh., 192, 151-181.
Blatt, H., Middleton, G., and Murry, R., 1980. Origin of sedimentary rocks, 2nd Ed., PrenticeHall, New Jersey, 782 pp.
Boenigk, W., 1983. Schwermineralanalyse. Enke, Sttutgart, 158 pp.
Boggs, Jr. S., 1987. Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. Merrill, Columbus.
Chillinger, G., and Wolf, K., 1989. Diagenesis II, Developments in Sedimentology. Elsevier,
Amsterdam.
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Galloway, W., Hobday, D., 1983. Terrigenous clastic depositional systems. Springer-Verlag,
New York.
Miall, A., 1996. The geology of fluvial deposits. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Tucker, M.E., 2001. Sedimentary Petrology, 3rd ed. Blackwell Science, Oxford.
Walker, R.G., 1984. Facies Models, 2nd Ed. Geoscience Canada, Toronto, 317 pp.
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