Sedimentary rocks
These are the preserved remains or prints of ancient plants and animals, which are almost always found inside sedimentary rocks.
fossils
This liquid, molten rock is found inside the Earth before it erupts or leaks out onto the surface.
magma
These are the two intense forces deep underground that work together to bake and squeeze older rocks into metamorphic ones.
heat and pressure
This is the hardest mineral on Earth.
diamond
This property is the easiest to see first, but it is often unreliable because minerals like quartz can come in purple, pink, or clear varieties.
color
This specific type of sedimentary rock is made when tiny grains of sand get squeezed and glued together over millions of years.
sandstone
This is the name for molten rock once it breaks through the Earth's crust and flows out of a volcano.
lava
This beautiful metamorphic rock is formed when limestone is baked underground and is often used by sculptors or for fancy kitchen counters.
marble
This property describes how shiny a mineral is, or how it reflects light, like looking metallic or glassy.
luster
This property measures how much mass is packed into a specific volume, or how heavy a rock feels for its size.
density
This word describes the bits of broken rock, sand, mud, and shells that get moved by wind or water and settle at the bottom of lakes and oceans.
sediment
This glassy, dark igneous rock cools so quickly on the surface that no visible crystals have time to grow.
obsidian
This word describes the wavy bands or striped lines seen in some metamorphic rocks when intense pressure flattens their minerals.
bands
To test this property, you scratch a mineral against a white plate to see the color of its powder.
streak
Some minerals, like magnetite, have this special invisible property that allows them to attract metal paperclips
magnetism
Sedimentary rocks are famous for forming in these flat, horizontal bands that look like stripes or layers.
layers
This common intrusive rock cools slowly underground, creating large mineral crystals often seen on kitchen countertops.
granite
This smooth, flat metamorphic rock starts out as soft shale mudstone before being squished, and is used to make traditional chalkboards.
slate
Named after a scientist, this 1-to-10 scale measures how easy or hard it is to scratch a mineral
mohs scale
This property simply describes how a mineral splits smoothly along flat, even surfaces like sheets of paper.
cleavge
This is the final step in making a sedimentary rock, where minerals in groundwater act like a natural glue to lock the grains into solid stone.
cementation
This dark, heavy igneous rock makes up most of the oceanic crust under the ocean floor and cools quickly from lava.
basalt
This high-grade metamorphic rock develops thick, alternating light and dark mineral bands, and its name starts with a silent letter g.
gneiss
This mineral is so strong that it can only be scratched by another diamond.
dimond
This is the physical property that tells you how heavy or light a rock feels for its size
density