Why do Geologists Need to Identify Sedimentary Rock?
Sedimentary rock is where you find important things like oil, natural gas, coal, salt, potash, iron ore, and other important resources. Geologists also find fossils in sedimentary rock. In order for geologists to know where to find these things, they need to know what types of sedimentary rock to find them in. Instructional Procedures: • Explain to students what sedimentary rocks are and how they form. Be sure to introduce them to different types of sedimentary rocks, especially sandstone, limestone and shale. • Divide students into groups of three and give each group a piece of limestone, sandstone, shale or conglomerate. • Have students examine grain size for each rock. It may be helpful to use a magnifying glass. Have students test the rock to see whether it is a clastic sedimentary rock or a biologic (carbonate) sedimentary rock by putting a drop of weak acid on the rock and seeing whether or not it will fizz. While students are performing each experiment they need to be taking not
