1 - Describe the rock cycle and identify the three different types of rocks produced on earth by origin. The rock cycle describes the formation, the breakdown and the reformation of a rock. The three different types of rocks are sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous; although all rocks are created by minerals, each rock has a different formation, breakdown, and reformation which splits the rocks into the three different types of rocks. These rocks have numerous elements in common, but are created different ways. Sedimentary rocks are created by pieces of many different rocks that create rocks. Metamorphic rocks are rocks that are created from heat and pressure these rocks can be sedimentary, igneous, or other metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks begin as a melted rock that freeze. Rocks are nonliving and created with different minerals, but their formation, breakdown, and reformation are different and this is how we categorize each rock into its category. Therefore, dependent on how a rock is created, heated, or frozen; rocks are similar in regards to being created from minerals. …show more content…
Composite is the first which is also referred to as strato; it is formed from layers of ash and lava flows that are steep sided cones. The next type is called Shield volcanoes; which are low with sloping sides. This type is formed from layers of lava. The last type of volcanoes is Dome. This type of volcano is filled with a very thick type of lava. Volcanoes occur where they do because of the pressure that has been built up. This is very similar to a bottle of champagne, there is so much pressure stored inside of a champagne bottle that when the cork pops you can feel the pressure being released from that bottle. Volcanoes occur in that same fashion without the cork being popped. This pressure is being stored in the magma chamber and when it erupts it erupts just like a bottle of champagne that has been shaken
The collection of the rocks was based on just picking up the most amount of difference looking rocks that was possible and bringing them home to analyze. This was done for about two months from many difference locations including campgrounds, beaches, rivers, highways as well as construction sites. After about two months there were many rocks so I started to analyze and take out the rocks that were of the same kind. I found many granite, basalt and conglomerate rocks.
There are different types of volcanoes, such as shield volcanoes, composite volcanoes, and cinder cone volcanoes that are mentioned in Chapter 9, page 312 of Earth Science. (Refer to figure 2 for volcano type examples.)
Next, these rocks undergo erosion, which is the process of moving sediments from one place to another. Then, these sediments are deposited all at one place and over time they start to converge and cement as layers which are also known as strata. As time keeps going, new sediments deposit and cement together over old ones forming new layers. This is a repetitive process that eventually build up layers to make up a Sedimentary rock. Approximately 40 major sedimentary rock layers exposed in the Grand Canyon National Park area range in age from about 200 million to nearly 2 billion years old. As you can see, sedimentary rock formation takes an excessive amount of time.
Despite a family history of geophysicists and rock enthusiasts, I’ve never found the subject of rocks particularly fascinating. However, an exploration of Earth Science has lead me to the discovery that rocks are actually hidden gems (often literally), and that there’s more to the topic than one would think.
2. Use the geologic definition of a mineral to determine which of the items listed in Figure 1.1 (p.3 lab book) are minerals and which are not minerals. Put an “X” in the appropriate box.
Next, we can see that the rock displays a subtle porphyritic texture with plagioclase comprising the phenocrysts. The overall texture of the surrounding groundmass is granoblastic equigranular. Under thin section we also see a weakly defined foliation evidenced in the preferential alignment of actinolite grains and to a lesser extent chlorite grains. Undulose extinction is also observed in quartz indicating the rock was subject to deformation. The normalized quartz, alkali-feldspar, and plagioclase (QAP) values of this rock indicate that it is classified as a grano-diorite according to the IUGS QAPF classification system which is consistent with the hand sample interpretation.
In Colorado, we have marble, sandstone, and granite, being metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rock from left to
There are two types of minerals that we find in Earth - rock-forming and ore minerals.
and relationships of a working model. If a testable hypothesis is confirmed by a large
Igneous petrology is basically one of the fields that deals with geology. Igneous petrology is the study of igneous rocks. Igneous petrology deals with their origin, composition, and texture.
A mineral is a naturally substance that happens, in this process an inorganic material creates a solid crystal like material that has a specific chemical composition. All the matters that make up a mineral are natural and made up from the earth and do not have living matter in them. The structure makes it three dimensional, which means that it has a particular shape that repeats itself. Now compared to a rock, which is also an inorganic material, however it has not certain atomic structure compared to minerals. Rocks are made up of several different minerals, which have been “stuck” together in a geological process that formed
Rodger the rock was a very lonely metamorphic rock that didn't have many friends. Then one day he melted into magma, cooled and formed into a igneous rock.. He still had a pretty hard life but it was a little better. Its was a very bad Monday when he was walking home from school and got into a fight with a super strong diamond rock.. The Diamond beat him to sediments. Finally he was sick of this sad life and he picked himself up and was compacted and cemented together into a sedimentary rock.. After a year or 10,000 he got weathered and eroded into a sediments and soon into a different sedimentary rock..
The terrain of North-West Highlands consists of four different types of rocks with predominantly high-grade metamorphic rock. The oldest rocks of the Northwest Highlands are the Lewisian rocks which are approximately 3 billion years old. The rocks are believed to be the oldest not only in Scotland but also in the world. Moreover, the Lewisian rocks were moulded over a huge time span of circa 2 billion years, through numerous processes such as burial, compression, folding and heating of large amounts of cooled molten rock, and much smaller volumes of muddy, sandy and carbonate sediments. By around 1 billion years ago, the Lewisian rocks were already prehistoric and had been eroded down into a mountainous environment. Throughout this landscape
Rocks are classified to make it easier on people to identify them in the future. This can be done by a numerous amount of ways. Each rock type has their own specific ways, but there are two distinct characteristics that apply to all. These are texture and composition. These two, along with many others helps to classify igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.