COMPACTION

Compaction

Compaction refers to the process by which a sediment progressively loses its porosity due to the effects of loading. This forms part of the process of lithification. When a layer of sediment is originally deposited, it contains an open framework of particles with the pore space being usually filled with water. As more sediment is deposited above the layer, the effect of the increased loading is to increase the particle-to-particle stresses resulting in porosity reduction primarily through a more efficient packing of the particles and to a lesser extent through elastic compression and pressure solution. The initial porosity of a sediment depends on its lithology.

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compaction

Noun

  1. The process of compacting something, or something that has been compacted.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: compaction
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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