Armored Mud Balls: Their Origin, Properties, and Role in Sedimentation

Abstract

A brief summary of the limited literature devoted to mud balls centers around nomenclature, the ideas regarding the origin of mud balls, and the factors limiting their size. A report is made of a combined field and laboratory study in which an investigation of the size which mud balls may attain leads to conclusions that differ from those in the literature; findings are presented which deal with the relationship between sphericity and the distance mud balls travel, the influence of weight, sphericity, and specific surface upon armor quantity, and the importance of mud balls as a factor in the transportation of debris produced by erosion.