- Industry: Mining
- Number of terms: 33118
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States Government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral resources.
Founded on May 16, 1910, through the Organic Act (Public Law 179), USBM's missions ...
A rock resulting from the consolidation of loose sediment that has accumulated in layers; e.g., a clastic rock (such as conglomerate or tillite) consisting of mechanically formed fragments of older rock transported from its source and deposited in water or from air or ice; or a chemical rock (such as rock salt or gypsum) formed by precipitation from solution; or an organic rock (such as certain limestones) consisting of the remains or secretions of plants and animals. The term is restricted by some authors to include only those rocks consisting of mechanically derived sediment; others extend it to embrace all rocks other than purely igneous and completely metamorphic rocks, thereby including pyroclastic rocks composed of fragments blown from volcanoes and deposited on land or in water.
Industry:Mining
A rock resulting from the consolidation of loose sediment that has accumulated in layers; e.g., a clastic rock (such as conglomerate or tillite) consisting of mechanically formed fragments of older rock transported from its source and deposited in water or from air or ice; or a chemical rock (such as rock salt or gypsum) formed by precipitation from solution; or an organic rock (such as certain limestones) consisting of the remains or secretions of plants and animals. The term is restricted by some authors to include only those rocks consisting of mechanically derived sediment; others extend it to embrace all rocks other than purely igneous and completely metamorphic rocks, thereby including pyroclastic rocks composed of fragments blown from volcanoes and deposited on land or in water.
Industry:Mining
A rock resulting from the cooling of a molten magma; an igneous rock.
Industry:Mining
A rock so closely grained that no component particles or crystals can be recognized by the eye.
Industry:Mining
A rock texture characterized by piles of lobate, pillow-shaped masses; individual pillows range up to several meters across; typical of basalt that has erupted under an appreciable depth of water.
Industry:Mining
A rock texture in which numerous grains of various minerals in random orientation are completely enclosed within a large, optically continuous crystal of different composition. Also spelled poicilitic. Compare: ophitic
Industry:Mining
A rock texture resulting from the aggregation of mineral grains of approx. equal size. The term may be applied to a sedimentary or metamorphic rock, but is esp. used to describe an equigranular, holocrystalline igneous rock whose particles range in diameter from 0.05 to 10 mm.
Industry:Mining
A rock texture showing smooth, regular, curved contacts between minerals.
Industry:Mining
A rock that breaks easily or crumbles naturally; hence a formation from which good core cannot be obtained easily.
Industry:Mining
A rock that contains silica in excess of that necessary to form saturated minerals from the bases present. Compare: saturated rock
Industry:Mining
