"Sedimentary" Quotes from Famous Books
... of the rise and progress of palaeontology. The whole fabric of palaeontology is based upon two propositions: the first is, that fossils are the remains of animals and plants; and the second is, that the stratified rocks in which they are found are sedimentary deposits; and each of these propositions is founded upon the same axiom, that like effects imply like causes. If there is any cause competent to produce a fossil stem, or shell, or bone, except a living being, ... — The Rise and Progress of Palaeontology - Essay #2 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" • Thomas Henry Huxley
... McLean camped below the cliffs of Horn Bluff (1000 FEET IN height). Columnar Dolerite is seen surmounting a sedimentary series partly buried in ... — The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson
... indigo vat should be thoroughly freed from any soap which may have been used in the boiling out. Then, after dyeing, they ought to be well rinsed in water and passed through a sour made with sulphuric acid (2 lb. in 10 gallons), and then washed again. Vats highly charged with sedimentary matter, or with zinc or lime, are often the cause of loose shades. The remedy is obvious, viz., the discarding of such vats and the preparation of new ones, in fact old vats are perhaps more fruitful sources of loose shades than any other cause. Soft ... — The Dyeing of Woollen Fabrics • Franklin Beech
... the question of the soil. The Tokay Eperies group of hills is one of several well-defined groups of volcanic rocks that exist in Hungary and Transylvania. In the Tokay district the formations are partly eruptive, partly sedimentary, but nowhere older than the Tertiary period, say the geologists. The Hegyalia (which means "mountain-slopes" in the Magyar tongue) forms the southern spur of the extended volcanic region, composed of trachyte and rhyolithe, ... — Round About the Carpathians • Andrew F. Crosse
... and overthrown, to be covered by sedimentary deposits such as those which cover our coal-seams, the amount of coal which would be thereby formed for use in some future age, would amount to a thickness of perhaps two or three inches at most, and yet, in one coal-field alone, that of Westphalia, ... — The Story of a Piece of Coal - What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes • Edward A. Martin
... the range a telling series of sedimentary rocks containing the early history of the Sierra are now being studied. But leaving for the present these first chapters, we see that only a very short geological time ago, just before the coming on of that winter of winters called the glacial period, a vast deluge of ... — The Mountains of California • John Muir
... enforced his pleas; and in the subsequent years thousands of students, many of them of the highest families, quietly left their homes, donned the peasants' garb, smirched their faces, tarred their hands, and went into the villages or the factories in the hope of stirring up the thick sedimentary deposit of the Russian system[227]. In many cases their utmost efforts ended in failure, the tragi-comedy of which is finely set forth in Turgenieff's Virgin Soil. Still more frequently their goal proved to be—Siberia. But these young men and women did ... — The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) • John Holland Rose
... to the exclusion of another. Man observes the annual decomposition of crystalline and igneous rocks, and may sometimes see their conversion into stratified deposits; but he cannot witness the reconversion of the sedimentary into the crystalline by subterranean heat. He is in the habit of regarding all the sedimentary rocks as more recent than the unstratified, for the same reason that we may suppose him to fall into the opposite error if he saw the origin of the ... — The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various
... Piave there stretches, at a variable distance of from three to five miles from the actual shore, a bank of sand, divided into long islands by narrow channels of sea. The space between this bank and the true shore consists of the sedimentary deposits from these and other rivers, a great plain of calcareous mud, covered, in the neighbourhood of Venice, by the sea at high water, to the depth in most places of a foot or a foot and a half, and nearly everywhere exposed at low tide, but divided by an intricate network of narrow ... — Selections From the Works of John Ruskin • John Ruskin
... interior of the earth must be either metallic or very compressible. To assign a metallic nucleus to the earth, is repugnant to analogy; and it is not rendered even probable by facts, as we find volcanic emissions to contain no heavier elements than the sedimentary layers. Besides, there are indications of a gradual increase of density downwards, such as would arise from the compressibility of the layers. Seeing, therefore, the equilibrium of the whole mass, and the consequent hydrostatic balance of the land in the sea,—seeing ... — Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms - Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence • T. Bassnett
... to that, opinions may differ; but as to the fact that the changes themselves have occurred, from the earliest geological ages down to the present day, and are still going on, there is no difference of opinion. Every successive stratum of sedimentary rock, sand, or gravel, is a proof that changes of level have taken place; and the different species of animals and plants, whose remains are found in these deposits, prove that corresponding changes did occur ... — The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace
... is limited to commercial fishing. The proximity to nearby oil- and gas-producing sedimentary basins suggests the potential for oil and gas deposits, but the region is largely unexplored, and there are no reliable estimates of potential reserves; commercial exploitation has yet ... — The 1995 CIA World Factbook • United States Central Intelligence Agency
... grow and thrive 150 to 200 miles north of here, where temperatures drop to minus 35 deg. to 40 deg., with occasional drops to 54 deg. below zero. Check this on your map of Interior of B. C. on 53 deg. latitude at Quesnel, B. C. I see a geology map lists that district as sedimentary and volcanic rocks. My informant grows butternuts, chestnuts, and filberts. Another grower at Clinton, located on 50 deg. latitude, central B. C. with temperatures to minus 40 deg. F., grows Japanese and black walnuts, also Pioneer ... — Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting • Various
... belts of folding, is not affected by the folds of either, excepting near its margins. It consists largely of crystalline and schistose rocks. The core is formed by the mountain masses of Rhodope, Belasitza, Perin and Rila; and here Palaeozoic and Mesozoic beds are absent, and the earliest sedimentary deposits belong to the Tertiary period and lie flat upon the crystalline rocks. Upon the margins, however, Cretaceous beds are found. The eastern parts of Greece are composed almost entirely of Cretaceous beds, but nevertheless they must be considered to belong ... — Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various
... alluvium of the Nile. Considerations as to the origin and spread of languages also seem to require a much greater antiquity for the human race than has been popularly allowed; and geologists have always claimed myriads of years as required for the sedimentary formations of the globe. Sir Charles Lyell, ever an active collector of geological facts, and an excellent writer on the science of Geology, has engaged with his usual zeal in verifying the researches ... — Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... on firmer ground in explaining the origin of chalk and clay, for the rocks of the region about Paris, with which he was familiar, are sedimentary ... — Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution - His Life and Work • Alpheus Spring Packard
... plant (glycyrrhiza lepidota) was a characteristic plant. The ridge here rises abruptly to the height of about 4,000 feet, its face being very prominently marked with a massive stratum of rose-colored granular quartz, which is evidently an altered sedimentary rock, the lines of deposition being very distinct. It is rocky and steep—divided into several mountains—and the rain in the valley appears to be always snow on their summits at this season. Near ... — The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California • Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont
... this object, the introductory portion of the work is devoted to a consideration of the general principles of Palaeontology, and the bearings of this science upon various geological problems—such as the mode of formation of the sedimentary rocks, the reactions of living beings upon the crust of the earth, and the sequence in time of the fossiliferous formations. The second portion of the work deals exclusively with Historical Palaeontology, each formation being considered separately, as regards its lithological ... — The Ancient Life History of the Earth • Henry Alleyne Nicholson
... greater than the lowest part visible in the channel of the river. The parallel course of small tributaries joining rivers, which seem to be the middle drain of extensive plains, may have been marked out during the deposition of the sedimentary matter as tributaries, on entering the channel of greater streams, immediately become a portion of them; hence it is, the general inclination being common to both, that such tributaries do not cross these sediments of floods now termed plains ... — Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 2 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell
... lower members of a series of sedimentary rocks are certainly older than the upper; and when the notion of age was once introduced as the equivalent of succession, it was no wonder that correspondence in succession came to be looked upon as a correspondence in age, or "contemporaneity." And, indeed, so long as relative age only is spoken ... — Geological Contemporaneity and Persistent Types of Life • Thomas H. Huxley
... it is as a mode of mining, has yet served a good purpose in showing in a very distinct manner the structure of these veins,—a structure which is found to be on the whole very general in the Province. The quartz is not found, as might naturally be supposed from its position among sedimentary rocks, lying in anything like a plain, even sheet of equal thickness. On the contrary, it is seen to be marked by folds or plications, occurring at tolerably regular intervals, and crossing the vein at an angle of 40 deg. or 45 deg. to the west. Similar folds may be produced in a sheet ... — The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 79, May, 1864 • Various
... most widely diffused of metals. Traces of it are found in practically all igneous and most sedimentary rocks. It occurs in sea-water, and quite frequently in beach-sands. Traces of it are also usually to be found in alluvial deposits and in the soils of most mountain-folds. In spite of its wide diffusion, however, all the gold that has been ... — Commercial Geography - A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges • Jacques W. Redway
... may be regarded as more or less hypothetical, Geology adds an extensive series that have been inductively established. Investigations show that the Earth has been continually becoming more heterogeneous in virtue of the multiplication of sedimentary strata which form its crust; also, that it has been becoming more heterogeneous in respect of the composition of these strata, the later of which, being made from the detritus of the earlier, are many of them rendered highly complex by the ... — Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer
... Mud, sedimentary, coffee-colour, And here a wedge, a sharp, keen, thrustful triangularity, And squares that writhe in painful green, Calling, clamouring—O venerable shade of EUCLID. Back in the ages, dusty, maculated, Across the slate-hued fogs of time, Behold them!—oblongs of sliding water And cubed ... — Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 25, 1914 • Various
... in a sedimentary material, a sort of conglomerate, in which they, together with many other crystalline materials, had become imprisoned. Their original source has never been determined. They are therefore of the ... — A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public • Frank Bertram Wade
... between the nature of the underlying rock and the amount of damage was very clearly marked. Other conditions being the same, houses built on alluvial ground suffered most of all; and the destruction was also great in those standing on soft sedimentary rocks such as clays and friable limestones. On the other hand, when compact limestones or ancient schists formed the foundation-rock, the amount of damage was conspicuously less than in ... — A Study of Recent Earthquakes • Charles Davison
... Superior, being 320 miles in length and 100 in breadth, with a circumference, including Green Bay, of 1300 miles. It contains 22,000 miles of surface, with a depth of 900 feet in the deeper parts, though near the shore it grows gradually shoal. The rocks which compose its rim are of a sedimentary nature, and afford few indentations for harbors. The shores are low, and lined in many places with immense sand-banks. Green Bay, or Bale des Puans of the Jesuits, on the west coast, is 100 miles long and 20 broad. Great and Little Traverse Bays occur on the eastern ... — Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, 1861 • Various
... brings a considerable amount of earthy sediment from the heart of that Alpine region. After fairly entering upon the Plains, every stream begins to burrow and to wash, growing more and more turbid, until it is lost in 'Big Muddy,' the most opaque and sedimentary of all great rivers. I suspect that all the other rivers of this continent convey in the aggregate less earthy matter to the ocean than the Missouri pours into the previously transparent Mississippi, thenceforth ... — Continental Monthly, Vol. I. February, 1862, No. II. - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... total disappearance of large portions, if not of all, of the dry land of the globe. But the continuity of terrestrial life since the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, and the existence of very similar forms in the corresponding deposits of every continent—as well as the occurrence of sedimentary rocks, indicating the proximity of land at the time of their deposit, over a large portion of the surface of all the continents, and in every geological period—assure us that no such disappearance has ... — Darwinism (1889) • Alfred Russel Wallace
... original upheaval. For these remains, still in evidence on the spot, consist of a few small marine deposits of Upper Miocene age; and I recollect distinctly that after the main group had been for some time raised above the surface of the ocean, and after sand and streams had formed a small sedimentary deposit containing Upper Miocene fossils beneath the shoal water surrounding the main group, a slight change of level occurred, during which this minor island was pushed up with the Miocene deposits on its shoulders, as a sort of natural memorandum to assist my random scientific recollections. ... — Science in Arcady • Grant Allen
... whatever of water upon the moon. The opinion, indeed, which seems generally held, is that water has never existed upon its surface. Erosions, sedimentary deposits, and all those marks which point to a former occupation ... — Astronomy of To-day - A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language • Cecil G. Dolmage
... Sulphur-hill differs essentially from the other two deposits, the northern near Makna, and the southern near El-Wijh, in being plutonic and not sedimentary. One would almost say that it smokes, and the heat-altered condition of the granite, the greenstone, and other rocks, looking as if fresh from a fire, suggests that it may be one of the igneous veins, ... — The Land of Midian, Vol. 1 • Richard Burton
... water were accumulations of recent filth. Nevertheless, enormous improvements had taken place since the English occupation. An engineer was already employed in repairing the quay, and large blocks of carefully faced stone (a sedimentary limestone rock of very recent formation) were being laid upon a bed of concrete to form a permanent sea-wall. The houses which lined the quay were for the most part stores, warehouses, and liquor-shops. Among these the Custom House, the Club, Post Office, and Chief Commissioner's ... — Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker
... INVARIABLY IN THE HIGHEST REGIONS and at a long distance from their mouths, so that the flood waters have many miles of opportunity to run a race with the comparatively feeble erosive forces of desert lands. The main stream-courses are thus in the lower arid regions and in sedimentary formations, while their water-supply comes from far away. The deepest gorges, therefore, will be found where the rainfall is least, unless diminishing altitude interferes. Thus the greatest gorge of the whole basin, the Grand Canyon, is the one farthest from ... — The Romance of the Colorado River • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
... Granite is a rock which is formed under immense pressure and in the presence of confined moisture, needing a weight of fifteen thousand pounds upon every inch. Therefore, wherever granite is found we know that it has not been formed by deposit, like limestone and sandstone and slate and other sedimentary rocks, but at a prodigious depth under the solid ground, and by slow crystallizing of molten substances. There must have been from two to five miles of other rock lying upon the stuff that crystallized into granite. A wrinkling in the ... — The Old Coast Road - From Boston to Plymouth • Agnes Rothery
... South Africa has any area of modern volcanic action, much less any active volcano, been discovered. More ancient eruptive rocks, such as greenstones and porphyries, are of frequent occurrence, and are often spread out in level sheets above the sedimentary beds of the Karroo and of the ... — Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce
... the east to the Scarfs Crag on the west. I know not a richer tract for the geologist. Independently of the interest that attaches to its sorely-contorted granitic gneiss—which seems, as Murchison shrewdly remarks, to have been protruded through the sedimentary deposits in a solid state, as a fractured bone is sometimes protruded through the integuments—there occurs along the range three several deposits of the Old Red ichthyolites, and three several deposits ... — My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller
... mountain range is found a nucleus of eruptive rocks which have raised and twisted sedimentary strata, covering them and forcing them aside. This nucleus is not a regular feature of the whole length of the chain, but is an irregular mass beginning about at the middle, in the region of the Jaina River, and extending ... — Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich
... to conjecture that some of these singular formations which Neptune turned out by the score during an idle afternoon may be preserved—kernels of sedimentary rock each in a case of sandstone— throughout the wreck of matter to form the texts of scientific homilies ... — My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield
... mollusca on the West Coast of S. America.—Climate of the tertiary period.—On the causes of the absence of recent conchiferous deposits on the coasts of South America.—On the contemporaneous deposition and preservation of sedimentary formations. ... — South American Geology - also: - Title: Geological Observations On South America • Charles Darwin
... of the Lebanon is exceedingly complicated. "While the bulk of the mountain, and all the higher ranges, are without exception limestone of the early cretaceous period, the valleys and gorges are filled with formations of every possible variety, sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. Down many of them run long streams of trap or basalt; occasionally there are dykes of porphyry and greenstone, and then patches of sandstone, before the limestone and flint recur."[133] Some slopes are composed entirely ... — History of Phoenicia • George Rawlinson
... found with the gold in the bed of the stream. It is evidently the bed of some ancient stream, because it is walled in by steep banks of hard bed-rock, precisely like the banks of rivers and ravines in which water now runs, and because it is composed of clay which is evidently a sedimentary deposit, and of pebbles of black and white quartz, which could only be rounded and polished as they are by the long continued action of swiftly running water. The bed-rock in the bottom of this lead is worn into long smooth channels, and ... — Hittel on Gold Mines and Mining • John S. Hittell
... in the southern hemisphere. Although surrounded on all sides by islands of volcanic origin, Borneo differs from them in presenting but small traces of volcanic activity, and in consisting of ancient masses of igneous rock and of sedimentary strata. ... — The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall |