sedimentet

Sediment is solid material that has been deposited onto the Earth’s surface through weathering, transport, and deposition by water, wind, ice, or gravity. It consists of particles derived from broken rocks, minerals precipitated from solution, and organic remains. Sediment is not yet a rock; when compacted and cemented over long timescales, it becomes a sedimentary rock.

Sediment is produced by weathering at the surface, biological activity, and chemical precipitation. Once formed, particles are transported by rivers, oceans, winds, or glaciers, and come to rest when the energy of the transporting medium decreases. The process of deposition leads to the accumulation of layers that preserve a record of environmental conditions.

There are several major sediment types. Clastic or detrital sediments include sand, silt, and clay fragments derived from pre-existing rocks. Chemical or evaporitic sediments form when minerals precipitate from solution, such as halite and gypsum. Biogenic or organic sediments arise from the accumulated remains of organisms, including coal, limestone made from shells, and ooids in shallow seas.

Sediments can form layered beds with characteristic structures such as bedding, ripple marks, and cross-bedding, reflecting past flow conditions. Over geological time, diagenesis and lithification compact and cement the sediments into sedimentary rocks like sandstone, shale, limestone, and coal.

Sedimentology and stratigraphy study these processes to understand past climates, shoreline evolution, and resource distribution, including groundwater reservoirs and hydrocarbon traps. In Norwegian, the definite form sedimentet simply refers to the sediment, i.e., the sediment as a concept in this context.