Sedimentary rock,rockformed at or near the Earth’s surface by the accumulation andlithificationof sediment (detrital rock) or by the precipitation fromsolutionat normal surface temperatures (chemical rock). Sedimentary rocks are the most common rocks exposed on the Earth’s surface but are only a minorconstituentof the entire crust, which is dominated byigneousand metamorphic rocks.Sedimentary rocks are produced by theweatheringof preexisting rocks and the subsequent transportation anddepositionof the weathering products. Weathering refers to the various processes of physical disintegration and chemical decomposition that occur when rocks at the Earth’s surface are exposed to the atmosphere (mainly in the form of rainfall) and the hydrosphere. These processes producesoil, unconsolidated rockdetritus, and components dissolved ingroundwaterand runoff.Erosionis the process by which weathering products are transported away from the weathering site, either as solid material or as dissolved components, eventually to be deposited assediment. Any unconsolidated deposit of solid weathered materialconstitutessediment. It can form as the result ofdepositionof grains from moving bodies ofwaterorwind, from the melting of glacialice, and from the downslope slumping (sliding) of rock and soil masses in response to gravity, as well as by precipitation of the dissolved products of weathering under the conditions of low temperature and pressure that prevail at or near the surface of the Earth.

sedimentary rock formed from the weathering and soil conservation