Grain size analysis is an essential tool for classifying sedimentary environments. The calculation of statistics for many samples can, however, be a laborious process. A computer program called GRADISTAT has been written for the rapid analysis of grain size statistics from any of the standard measuring techniques, such as sieving and laser granulometry. Mean, mode, sorting, skewness and other statistics are calculated arithmetically and geometrically (in metric units) and logarithmically (in phi units) using moment and Folk and Ward graphical methods. Method comparison has allowed Folk and Ward descriptive terms to be assigned to moments statistics. Results indicate that Folk and Ward measures, expressed in metric units, appear to provide the most robust basis for routine comparisons of compositionally variable sediments. The program runs within the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet package and is extremely versatile, accepting standard and non-standard size data, and producing a range of graphical outputs including frequency and ternary plots. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/esp.261

GRADISTAT: a grain size distribution and statistics package for the analysis of unconsolidated sediments

Prediction of some weathering trends of plutonic and volcanic rocks based on thermodynamic and kinetic considerations

Detrital framework modes of sandstone suites from different kinds of basins are a function of provenance types governed by plate tectonics. Quartzose sands from continental cratons are widespread within interior basins, platform successions, miogeoclinal wedges, and opening ocean basins. Arkosic sands from uplifted basement blocks are present locally in rift troughs and in wrench basins related to transform ruptures. Volcaniclastic lithic sands and more complex volcano-plutonic sands derived from magmatic arcs are present in trenches, forearc basins, and marginal seas. Recycled orogenic sands, rich in quartz or chert plus other lithic fragments and derived from subduction complexes, collision orogens, and foreland uplifts, are present in closing ocean basins, diverse succ ssor basins, and foreland basins. Triangular diagrams showing framework proportions of quartz, the two feldspars, polycrystalline quartzose lithics, and unstable lithics of volcanic and sedimentary parentage successfully distinguish the key provenance types. Relations between provenance and basin are important for hydrocarbon exploration because sand frameworks of contrasting detrital compositions respond differently to diagenesis, and thus display different trends of porosity reduction with depth of burial.

Plate tectonics and sandstone compositions

[1] Estimates of the average composition of various Precambrian shields and a variety of estimates of the average composition of upper continental crust show considerable disagreement for a number of trace elements, including Ti, Nb, Ta, Cs, Cr, Ni, V, and Co. For these elements and others that are carried predominantly in terrigenous sediment, rather than in solution (and ultimately into chemical sediment), during the erosion of continents the La/element ratio is relatively uniform in clastic sediments. Since the average rare earth element (REE) pattern of terrigenous sediment is widely accepted to reflect the upper continental crust, such correlations provide robust estimates of upper crustal abundances for these trace elements directly from the sedimentary data. Suggested revisions to the upper crustal abundances of Taylor and McLennan [1985] are as follows (all in parts per million): Sc = 13.6, Ti = 4100, V = 107, Cr = 83, Co = 17, Ni = 44, Nb = 12, Cs = 4.6, Ta = 1.0, and Pb = 17. The upper crustal abundances of Rb, Zr, Ba, Hf, and Th were also directly reevaluated and K, U, and Rb indirectly evaluated (by assuming Th/U, K/U, and K/Rb ratios), and no revisions are warranted for these elements. In the models of crustal composition proposed by Taylor and McLennan [1985] the lower continental crust (75% of the entire crust) is determined by subtraction of the upper crust (25%) from a model composition for the bulk crust, and accordingly, these changes also necessitate revisions to lower crustal abundances for these elements.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2000GC000109

Relationships between the trace element composition of sedimentary rocks and upper continental crust

Advanced Statistical Methods in Biometric Research.

Here is a new, second edition of a classical textbook in sedimentology, petrology, and petrography of sand and sandstones. It has been extensively revised and updated, including: new techniques and their utility; new literature; new illustrations; new, explicitly stated problems for the student; and a wider scope.

Sand and sandstone

Manual of sedimentary petrography

Paleocurrents and Basin Analysis

/pdf/chemical-composition-of-sandstones-excluding-carbonate-and-rddxc1vq3i.pdf

Chemical composition of sandstones-excluding carbonate and volcanic sands

Definition and scope.- Classification of primary sedimentary structures.- Bedding: external form.- Bedding: internal organization and structure.- Bedding plane marking and irregularities.- Bedding deformed by penecontemporaneous processes.- Plates.- Introductory note to glossary of primary sedimentary structures.- Glossary of primary sedimentary structures.- References.

F. J. Pettijohn

Papers

Sand and sandstone

Manual of sedimentary petrography

Paleocurrents and Basin Analysis

Chemical composition of sandstones-excluding carbonate and volcanic sands

Atlas and Glossary of Primary Sedimentary Structures