ETYM French sédiment, Latin sedimentum a settling, from sedere to sit, to settle. Related to Sit.
Any loose material that has “settled”—deposited from suspension in water, ice, or air, generally as the water current or wind speed decreases. Typical sediments are, in order of increasing coarseness, clay, mud, silt, sand, gravel, pebbles, cobbles, and boulders.
Sediments differ from sedimentary rocks in which deposits are fused together in a solid mass of rock by a process called diagenesis. Pebbles are cemented into conglomerates; sands become sandstones; muds become mudstones or shales; peat is transformed into coal.
L
Matter deposited by water or ice or wind; SYN. deposit. + prikaži više