Sedimentology

Sedimentology is the study of sediments such as sand,Siever, Raymond 1988. Sand. New York: Scientific American Library.  mud (silt),Potter P.E; Maynard  J.B. and Depetris P.J. 2005. Mud and mudstones: introduction and overview. Berlin: Springer.  and clay.Millot, Georges 1970. Geology of clays: weathering, sedimentology, geochemistry. Berlin: Springer Verlag.  How they are laid down today is used to understand how rocks were formed.Nichols, Gary 1999. Sedimentology & stratigraphy. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.  A person who studied sedimentology is called Sedimentologist. They use their understanding of modern processes to interpret sedimentary rocks and sedimentary structures.Prothero, Donald R.  and Schwab, Fred 1994. Sedimentary geology: an introduction to sedimentary rocks and stratigraphy, San Francisco: Freeman. 

Sedimentary rocks cover most of the Earth's surface, record much of the Earth's history, and contain the fossil record. Sedimentology is closely linked to stratigraphy, which is the study of the physical and temporal (time) relationships between rock layers or strata.

The idea that the processes affecting the earth today are the same as in the past is called uniformitarianism. It is the basis for finding out how sedimentary features in the rock record were formed. By comparing similar features today to features in the rock record—for example, by comparing modern sand dunes to dunes preserved in ancient aeolian sandstones—geologists reconstruct past environments.

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