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Siltstone is a sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock is one of the three main Rock types . Sedimentary rock is formed by deposition and consolidation of mineral and organic material and from precipitation of minerals from solution....
 which has a composition intermediate in grain size between the coarser sandstone
Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock Particle size . Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust ....
s and the finer mudstone
Mudstone

Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Particle size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope....
s and shale
Shale

Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clay minerals or muds. It is characterized by thin laminae breaking with an irregular curving fracture, often splintery and usually parallel to the often-indistinguishable bedding plane....
s.

ts name implies, it is primarily composed (greater than 2/3) of silt
Silt

Silt is soil or Rock derived granular material of a Particle size between sand and clay. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body....
 sized particles, defined as grains between 3.9 and 62.5 micrometre
Micrometre

A micrometre or micron is one Micro- of a metre, or equivalently one thousandth of a millimetre. It is also commonly known as a micron....
s or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi (f) scale.






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Siltstone is a sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock is one of the three main Rock types . Sedimentary rock is formed by deposition and consolidation of mineral and organic material and from precipitation of minerals from solution....
 which has a composition intermediate in grain size between the coarser sandstone
Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock Particle size . Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust ....
s and the finer mudstone
Mudstone

Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Particle size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope....
s and shale
Shale

Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clay minerals or muds. It is characterized by thin laminae breaking with an irregular curving fracture, often splintery and usually parallel to the often-indistinguishable bedding plane....
s.

Description

As its name implies, it is primarily composed (greater than 2/3) of silt
Silt

Silt is soil or Rock derived granular material of a Particle size between sand and clay. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body....
 sized particles, defined as grains between 3.9 and 62.5 micrometre
Micrometre

A micrometre or micron is one Micro- of a metre, or equivalently one thousandth of a millimetre. It is also commonly known as a micron....
s or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi (f) scale. Siltstones differ significantly from sandstones due to their smaller pores and higher propensity for containing a significant clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
 fraction. Although often mistaken as a shale
Shale

Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clay minerals or muds. It is characterized by thin laminae breaking with an irregular curving fracture, often splintery and usually parallel to the often-indistinguishable bedding plane....
, siltstone lacks the fissility
Fissility (geology)

Fissility refers to the property of mudstones to split along layers, more or less parallel to the plane of bedding, thus becoming described as shales....
 and laminations which are typical of shale. Siltstones may contain concretion
Concretion

A concretion is a volume of sedimentary rock in which a mineral cement fills the porosity . Concretions are often ovoid or spherical in shape, although irregular shapes also occur....
s. Unless the siltstone is fairly shaly, stratification is likely to be obscure and it tends to weather at oblique angles unrelated to bedding.

Holtzclaw Siltstone Kentucky