page_title: Clastic dike
section_title: Environments of formation
hierarchical_section_title: Clastic dike / Environments of formation
caption_attribution_description: English: Appears to be clastic dikes injected downward, beneath debris flow deposit in Black Dragon Canyon, San Rafael Swell, UT.
context_page_description: A clastic dike is a seam of sedimentary material that fills an open fracture in and cuts across sedimentary rock strata or layering in other rock types. Clastic dikes form rapidly by fluidized injection or passively by water, wind, and gravity. Diagenesis may play a role in the formation of some dikes. Clastic dikes are commonly vertical or near-vertical. Centimeter-scale widths are common, but thicknesses range from millimetres to metres. Length is usually many times width.
  Clastic dikes are found in sedimentary basin deposits worldwide. Formal geologic reports of clastic dikes began to emerge in the early 19th century.
  Terms synonymous with clastic dike include: clastic intrusion, sandstone dike, fissure fill, soft-sediment deformation, fluid escape structure, seismite, injectite, liquefaction feature, neptunian dike, paleoseismic indicator, pseudo ice wedge cast, sedimentary insertion, sheeted clastic dike, synsedimentary filling, tension fracture, hydraulic injection dike, and tempestite.
context_section_description: Clastic dike environments include:
  Clastic dikes associated with earthquakes –
  A large variety of dikes are found in the geologic record. However, clastic dikes are typically produced by seismic disturbance and liquefaction of high water content sediments. Examples of this type are many.  Clastic dikes are paleoseismic indicators in certain geologic settings.  Several qualitative, field-based systems have been developed to help distinguish seismites from soft sediment deformation features  formed by non-seismic processes.
  Results from analytical modeling of clastic dike injection in soft rocks indicate propagation occurred at a rate of approximately 4 to 65 m/s at driving pressures of 1–2 MPa. Emplacement duration (<2 s) is similar to the speed with which acoustic energy (pressure waves) moves through partially lithified sedimentary rock.
  Clastic dikes associated with debris flows -
  Sandstone dikes formed by downward injection are found along Black Dragon wash upstream of the famous petroglyphs area, San Rafael Swell, Utah.
  Clastic dikes associated with impact craters –
  Sandstone dikes with cataclastically deformed sand grains, sourced in the Permian White Rim Sandstone, are found within Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, at Roberts Rift, and elsewhere. Commonly, the fill is composed of angular grains, evidence that the injected material was lithified prior to impact and was crushed during injection into fractures (preexisting or impact-formed).
  Clastic dikes associated with salt domes –
  Clastic dike swarms associated with salt dome diapirism are reported from the Dead Sea region.
  Clastic dikes associated with glaciers –
  Sand injection features are reported to have formed under heavy loads and confining pressures beneath grounding glacial ice.
  Clastic dikes in resistant bedrock –
  Though unusual, a significant number of reports describe sedimentary material intruding fractured crystalline bedrock, usually within fault zones. Some of the articles referenced here describe lithified clastic dikes.
  Clastic dikes in storm deposits –
  Cyclic stresses from large waves can cause wet sediments to fluidize, forming various types of soft sediment deformation features including clastic dikes.
caption: Red-colored clastic dikes injected downward into light-colored sediment beneath a debris flow. Black Dragon Wash, San Rafael Swell, Utah
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