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Related to Bedload: dissolved load, Suspended load


mineral or organic particles that are deposited by the action of wind, water, or glacial ice. These sediments can eventually form sedimentary rocks (see rockrock,
aggregation of solid matter composed of one or more of the minerals forming the earth's crust. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology. Rocks are commonly divided, according to their origin, into three major classes—igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
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Classification of Sediments

Sediments are commonly subdivided into three major groups—mechanical, chemical, and organic.

Mechanical, or clastic, sediments are derived from the erosion of earlier formed rocks on the earth's surface or in the oceans. These are then carried by streams, winds, or glaciers to the site where they are deposited. Streams deposit sediment in floodplainsfloodplain,
level land along the course of a river formed by the deposition of sediment during periodic floods. Floodplains contain such features as levees, backswamps, delta plains, and oxbow lakes.
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 or carry these particles to the ocean, where they may be deposited as a deltadelta
[from triangular shape of the Nile delta, like the Greek letter delta], a deposit of clay, silt, and sand formed at the mouth of a river where the stream loses velocity and drops part of its sediment load.
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. Ocean sediments, especially in the form of turbidites, are usually deposited at the foot of continental slopes (see oceansocean,
interconnected mass of saltwater covering 70.78% of the surface of the earth, often called the world ocean. It is subdivided into four (or five) major units that are separated from each other in most cases by the continental masses. See also oceanography.
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). Glaciers carry sediment frozen within the mass of the ice and are capable of carrying even huge boulders (erratics).

Chemical sediments are formed by chemical reactions in seawater that result in the precipitation of minute mineral crystals, which settle to the floor of the sea and ultimately form a more or less chemically pure layer of sediment. For example, evaporation in shallow basins results in a sequence of evaporite sediments, which include gypsum and rock salt.

Organic sediments are formed as a result of plant or animal actions; for example, peat and coal form by the incomplete decay of vegetation and its later compaction. Deep-ocean sediment known as pelagic ooze consists largely of the remains of microscope organisms (mostly foraminifera and diatoms) from the overlying waters as well as minor amounts of windblown volcanic and continental dust. Limestones are commonly formed by the aggregation of calcite shells of animals.

Formation of Sedimentary Rock

Sediments form sedimentary rock by compaction and cementation of the particles. Thus, coarse sediments become conglomeratesconglomerate,
in geology, sedimentary rock composed largely of pebbles or other rounded particles whose diameter is larger than 2 mm (.08 in.). Essentially a cemented gravel, conglomerates are formed along beaches, as glacial drift, and in river deposits.
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; sands become sandstonesandstone,
sedimentary rock formed by the cementing together of grains of sand. The usual cementing material in sandstone is calcium carbonate, iron oxides, or silica, and the hardness of sandstone varies according to the character of the cementing material; quartz sandstones
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; and muds become shaleshale,
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. Sedimentary rocks make up only about 5% of all rocks of the earth's crust, yet they cover 75% of the land area in a veneer that averages 2.26 km (1.4 mi) in thickness, ranging from 0 to 12.9 km (0–8 mi).


Transported and deposited particles or aggregates derived from rocks, soil, or biological material.


A mass of organic or inorganic solid fragmented material, or the solid fragment itself, that comes from weathering of rock and is carried by, suspended in, or dropped by air, water, or ice; or a mass that is accumulated by any other natural agent and that forms in layers on the earth's surface such as sand, gravel, silt, mud, fill, or loess.
A solid material that is not in solution and either is distributed through the liquid or has settled out of the liquid.


The matter which settles to the bottom of water or any other liquid.


material that has been deposited from water, ice, or wind
References in periodicals archive ?
This may be related to a preferential predation against larger clams and/or a dispersal of clams through bedload transport earlier in the season.
Bedload and suspended load sediment losses have different relationships with cover (McIvor et al.
The final paleophase ended when climatic change ~12 000 years before present diminished the size and peak of flows and reduced the bedload accordingly.
The second set was used to catch the sediments, transported as bedload onto two plates with slopes of 15[degrees] and 25[degrees].
Problems include river turbidity, increased sedimentation and bedload, a decreased river gradient, bank overflow and flooding, and negative impacts on the local ecosystem (see www.
Hydraulic interpretation of grain-size distributions using a physical model for bedload transport.
Average wash load was 5,000 mg/L and sand-size bedload was 19,000 mg/L.
A hydrology project at Redwood National Park helped geologists monitor the shifts in bedload in an aggraded stream along which the tallest redwood trees occur.
The complex landscape of the Arboretum was formed by processes including deposition of bedload material by the glacier, deposition of sediment by glacial meltwater, melting of stagnant ice, inundation by water of Glacial Lake Maumee, and flooding by the Huron River.
During these events, bedload transport is directed to the south with an offshore component, and suspended sediments are directed mainly along the coast to the southwest.
cr]) represents the necessary boundary shear stress to move the bedload materials, based upon their grain size, grain shape, sorting, effective density, and roughness.
They are either bedload deposits (dune sand, sheet sand) or suspended load (loess) of wind systems that were effective in moving sediment.