  Granular materials size segregate when exposed to external periodic
perturbations such as vibrations. Moreover, mixtures of grains of different
sizes spontaneously segregate in the absence of external perturbations: when a
mixture is simply poured onto a pile, the large grains are more likely to be
found near the base, while the small grains are more likely to be near the top.
Here, we report a spontaneous phenomenon arising when we pour a mixture between
two vertical plates: the mixture spontaneously stratifies into alternating
layers of small and large grains whenever the large grains are rougher than the
small grains. In contrast, we find only spontaneous segregation when the large
grains are more rounded than the small grains. The stratification is related to
the occurrence of avalanches; during each avalanche the grains comprising the
avalanche spontaneously stratify into a pair of layers through a "kink"
mechanism, with the small grains forming a sublayer underneath the layer of
large grains.
