Authoritative, accessible, and updated introduction to sedimentary rocks for undergraduate students

Sedimentary Petrology provides readers with a concise account of sedimentary rock composition, mineralogy, texture, structure, diagenesis, and depositional environments. The new edition of this classic text incorporates the many technological and analytical advances of the last decade, revealing exciting details of processes such as microbial precipitation, how microporosity is created within mudrocks, and the chemical composition of foraminifera deposits, which can be a key indicator for changing seawater temperature.

This fourth edition offers a comprehensive update and expansion of the previous editions with a new set of illustrations, new references, and further reading. The new co-author Stuart Jones has brought his considerable expertise in clastic sedimentology to the rewritten chapters on sandstones and mudrocks. The addition of color images throughout the text will aid students immensely in their studies and petrographic fieldwork.

Sample topics covered in Sedimentary Petrology include:

Advances in modeling and programming to simulate depositional-diagenetic conditions and controls which support field-lab descriptions and interpretations
Ocean acidification and the demise of coral reefs, and the role of the oceans in carbon capture and storage
Sedimentary ironstones and iron-formations, sedimentary phosphate deposits, coal, oil shale and petroleum, and cherts and siliceous sediments
Limestones, evaporites, volcaniclastic sediments, sandstones, conglomerates, breccias, and the effects of microplastics on marine organisms

Aimed at undergraduates in geology and earth science, Sedimentary Petrology is an excellent teaching and learning resource for introductory courses in sedimentary rocks.