Igneous Processes
This fluid, molten rock is found below Earth’s surface before it erupts and cools into rock.
What is magma?
This type of rock forms when pieces of older rocks or mineral grains are pressed and glued together over long periods.
What is sedimentary rock?
These are the two primary forces required deep underground to alter the texture and mineral composition of an existing rock without melting it.
What are heat and pressure?
This surface process breaks down solid rock into smaller pieces through mechanical or chemical interactions.
What is weathering?
True or False: The rock cycle has a strict, one-way sequence that all rocks must follow.
What is False?
This classification of igneous rock forms when lava cools quickly on Earth's surface, resulting in small or no visible mineral crystals.
What is an extrusive igneous rock?
These are the two sequential sub-surface processes that turn loose sediment into solid, compacted sedimentary rock.
What are compaction and cementation?
If a rock encounters too much heat deep underground and completely liquefies, it will cool into an igneous rock instead of this rock type.
What is a metamorphic rock?
Weathering, erosion, and deposition are all rock cycle events that happen exclusively in this location of the Earth system.
What is the surface (or above ground)?
To transform a metamorphic rock into an igneous rock, the material must undergo these two specific rock cycle steps.
What are melting and cooling?
This classification of igneous rock forms when magma cools slowly deep underground, allowing large mineral crystals to grow.
What is an intrusive igneous rock?
This type of material is created when surface weathering breaks down any existing rock into tiny, loose pieces.
What is sediment?
This is the general sub-surface location where most metamorphic rocks are formed due to the immense weight of overlying rock layers pressing down.
What is deep underground (or deep within Earth's crust)?
Compaction, cementation, and metamorphism are all rock cycle events that happen exclusively in this location of the Earth system.
What is the sub-surface (or underground)?
This internal factor provides the necessary thermal energy to melt rock into magma and drive sub-surface transformations.
What is Earth's internal heat?
This sub-surface tectonic event pushes deep igneous rock layers upward to the surface, exposing them to weathering and erosion.
This specific surface event involves the transport of loose sediment from one location to another by wind, water, or gravity.
What is erosion?
Intense heat and pressure usually alter rocks as a sub-surface event when these massive segments of Earth's lithosphere collide or move.
What are tectonic plates?
Standard SC.7.E.6.2 explicitly divides rock cycle events into two distinct categories based on where they happen. Name these two categories.
What are surface and sub-surface events?
To transform an existing igneous rock into a sedimentary rock, it must be directly acted upon by these two specific surface events.
What are weathering and erosion?
This physical property—the size of the mineral grains—indicates how fast or slow an igneous rock cooled during the rock cycle.
What is texture?
This surface event occurs when wind or water slows down and drops loose sediment into layers, where it can eventually become sedimentary rock.
What is deposition?
To form a metamorphic rock, heat and pressure must act upon these specific types of starting materials in the rock cycle.
What are pre-existing rocks (or any pre-existing sedimentary, igneous, or older metamorphic rocks)?
This tectonic sub-surface event occurs when a plate sinks into the mantle, driving rocks down where intense heat causes them to turn into magma.
What is subduction (or melting)?
This phrase describes why the rock cycle is a continuous pattern with no definitive beginning or end.
What is because rock material is constantly being recycled?