Glossary Category: Geology & Formation

Layering produced during deposition; bedding style affects how rocks split and where fossils and textures are preserved.

The natural surface between sediment layers; bedding planes often split easily and preserve fossils or trackways.

Solid rock in place beneath soil and loose debris; collectors use bedrock exposures to confirm source rock and structures.

The process that binds sediment grains into rock; cementation affects hardness, weathering, and fossil release.

A fragment of pre-existing rock within a sedimentary deposit; clast type helps interpret source and transport.

A rock made of rounded gravel clasts cemented together; conglomerates record high-energy transport and mixed sources.

The boundary where one rock unit meets another; contacts help collectors separate contexts and target zones like veins and fossil beds.

A tabular igneous intrusion that cuts across layers; dikes can act as markers and sometimes host minerals along contacts.

The steepest downhill direction and angle of a layer; dip tells you where a bed goes as you move across the landscape.

The removal and transport of weathered material by water, wind, ice, or gravity; erosion exposes new rock and concentrates float.