Tillite

tillite, sedimentary rock that consists of consolidated masses of unweathered blocks (large, angular, detached rock bodies) and glacial till (unsorted and unstratified rock material deposited by glacial ice) in a rock flour (matrix or paste of unweathered rock). The matrix, which comprises a large percentage of the rock, usually is dark gray to greenish black in colour and consists of angular quartz and feldspar grains and rock fragments in a very fine-grained paste. The widespread tillites in the geologic record provide evidence of former intense and widespread glaciation; Recent tillites (less than 11,700 years old) can be directly connected with glaciation, and Pleistocene tillites (11,700 to 2,600,000 years old) can be convincingly related to glaciation, but many earlier till-like bodies cannot. Only tillites formed from the till deposited by continental ice sheets have a good chance of being preserved in the geologic record.