Soil larger soil particles, and their mineralogy is often inherited from the parent material of the soil, but may include products of weathering (such as concretions of calcium carbonate or iron oxide), or residues of plant and animal life (such as silica phytoliths). Quartz is the most common mineral in the sand or silt fraction as it is resistant to chemical weathering, except under hot climate; other common minerals are feldspars, micas and ferromagnesian minerals such as pyroxenes, amphiboles and olivines, which are dissolved or transformed in clay under the combined influence of physico-chemical and biological processes. Due to its high
Quartz arenite Quartz arenite A quartz arenite or quartzarenite is a sandstone composed of greater than 90% detrital quartz, with limited amounts of other framework grains (feldspar, lithic fragments, etc.) and matrix. It can have higher-than-average amounts of resistant grains, like chert and minerals in the ZTR index. The term 'quartz arenite' is derived from the main component (quartz) and arenite, a Latin term for a rock with sand-sized grains. In some literature, these can be called orthoquartzites, a confusing term which usually refers to the metamorphic rock quartzite, though most metamorphic quartzites are diagentically fused from quartz arenites. The term "quartzose