<p>The podcast may have given the impression that sediment always gets buried or pushed down into the earth. This isnt the reality of the processes which are dynamic and dependent on geologic time as well as where these process can or can't happen. It really depends on the location and the processes happing there. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-24T16:35:43.770Z
The podcast described burial metamorphism as a process of piling sediments up until the lower layers are transformed by heat and pressure. The idea of them sinking into the earth was my own; I'm just trying to picture how a stream could sort sediments as it flows and have burial metamorphism happen to the different sizes of sediment.
Nathan Long
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-18T20:08:01.690Z
2020-01-18T20:15:00.920Z
2020-01-18T20:15:00.920Z
Armondo Villaescuza
<p>I was listening to a geology podcast describing how sedimentary rock forms and later turns into metamorphic rock. As a river lays down sediment, the lower layers can eventually be several kilometers below ground, where heat and pressure are significant.</p>

<p>How does this happen? Does the river bed get built higher and higher until the first layer of sediment is buried deeply, or does the bottom layer get pushed down into the earth? In other words, is the elevation of a given section of river increasing while this happens, or does it remain the same?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T08:21:56.700Z
Sedimentary rock is usually created at the bottom of (shallow) oceans.
Erik
<sedimentology><petrology><stratigraphy><metamorphism>
When sediments are deposited, do they sink into the earth?
Nathan Long
# When sediments are deposited, do they sink into the earth?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-15)

I was listening to a geology podcast describing how sedimentary rock forms and later turns into metamorphic rock. As a river lays down sediment, the lower layers can eventually be several kilometers below ground, where heat and pressure are significant.

How does this happen? Does the river bed get built higher and higher until the first layer of sediment is buried deeply, or does the bottom layer get pushed down into the earth? In other words, is the elevation of a given section of river increasing while this happens, or does it remain the same?

**Tags:** sedimentology, petrology, stratigraphy, metamorphism

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Sedimentary rock is usually created at the bottom of (shallow) oceans.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-01-18. Score: 1

The podcast may have given the impression that sediment always gets buried or pushed down into the earth. This isnt the reality of the processes which are dynamic and dependent on geologic time as well as where these process can or can't happen. It really depends on the location and the processes happing there.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The podcast described burial metamorphism as a process of piling sediments up until the lower layers are transformed by heat and pressure. The idea of them sinking into the earth was my own; I'm just trying to picture how a stream could sort sediments as it flows and have burial metamorphism happen to the different sizes of sediment.  

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