Sand"stone` (?), n.
A rock made of sand
more or less firmly united. Common or siliceous sandstone consists mainly
of quartz sand.
&fist; Different names are applied to the various kinds of sandstone according to their composition; as, granitic, argillaceous, micaceous, etc.
Flexible sandstone
(Min.), the finer-
grained variety of itacolumite, which on account of the scales of mica in the lamination is quite flexible. -- Red sandstone, a name given
to two extensive series of British rocks in which red
sandstones predominate, one below, and the other
above, the coal measures. These were formerly known as the
Old and the New Red
Sandstone respectively, and the former name is still
retained for the group preceding the Coal and
referred to the Devonian age, but the term
New Red Sandstone is now little used, some of the strata being regarded as Permian and the remained as Triassic. See the Chart of Geology.
Hear it pronounced