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Site 13: Quartz arenite sandstone
Age: Late Cambrian – Early Ordovician
Geological Unit(s): Goldenville Group, Meguma Supergroup
Description: This coarse-grained, moderately-sorted sandstone is dominated by the mineral quartz. A sandstone with over 90% quartz is referred to as an ‘arenite’. Quartz is a very mechanically and chemically resistant mineral, so it tends to dominate sediments that are ‘mature’ since other minerals, including feldspars and micas, tend to break down and weather into clay minerals over geologic time. Geologists use the mineralogy, sorted-ness, and roundness of the sediment grains (clasts) to infer something about the history of the sediment (e.g., its transportation history and location of sediment deposition).
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