Rock Cycle Vocabulary
What is weathering?
Weathering is the mechanical and chemical processes that change Earth's surface overtime.
ex. wind, rain, and water
Chemical weathering is the process that changes the composition of rocks and minerals due to exposure to the enviroment.
ex. acidification, oxidation, carbonation, and hydrolosis
Mechanical weathering are physical processes that naturally break rocks into smaller pieces.
ex. biological actions, water and wind abrasion, unloading and exfoliation, as well as frost and salt wedging
Weathering processes break, abrade, wear, and chemically alter rocks and rock surfaces. It can produce strangely shaped rocks. It can break rock into smaller and smaller pieces. Weathering can also change the chemical makeup of a rock. Often, these chemical changes can make a rock easier to break down. This is what weathering does in the rock cycle.
What is the rock cycle?
The rock cycle is the series of processes that change one type of rock into another type of rock.
What is a sedimentary rock?
A sedimentary rock is a rock formed when sediment compacts together and go through a process called cementation. Sediment goes through weathering and erosion to be eventually formed into sedimentary rock using depostion, compaction, and cementation.
What is a metamorphic rock?
Metamorphic rocks are rocks affected by changes in temperatures and pressures. Most metamorphic rocks form deep within Earth's crust. They form under high temperature conditions and they can form many layers, but these layers are not a result of deposition.
When rocks experience an increase in temperature and pressure, they behave like bendable plastic. This is called plastic deformation. This is the one way the textures of a rock change during metamorphism. It occurs during uplift events when tectonic plates collide and form mountains.
The rock that changes during metamorphism is called the parent rock.
Two common examples of a metamorphic rocks are slate and schist.
What is an igneous rock?
Igneous rocks form when lava cools and crystallizes. Not all lava makes it to Earth's surface. Large volumes of magma cool and crystallize beneath Earth's surface. Under these conditions, coolong and crystallization takes a long time.
What is erosion?
Erosion is the removal of weathered material from one location to another. Agents of erosion are water, wind, glaciers, and gravity. Erosion occurs at different rates just like weathering. Factors that affect the rate of erosion are weather, climate, and topo-graphy.
Erosion is the transportation of rock fragments in the rock cycle.
What is the order of the rock cycle?
Weathering and erosion, deposition, sedimentary rock, metamorphic rock, magma, igneous rock, uplift is the order of the rock cycle.
Quartz and calcite are all types of what?
What is sedimentary rock
What are two types of metamorphic rocks?
Foliated and non-foliated rocks are two types of metamorphic rocks. Foliated rocks contain parallel layers of flat and elongated minerals and non-foliated rocks.
What are two types of igneous rocks?
Two types of igneous rock are extrusive and intrusive rocks.
What is deposition?
Deposition is the laying down or settling of an eroded material. It takes place after a material has been eroded. As water or wind slows down, it has less energy and can hold less sediment. Some of the sediment can be laid down, or deposited.
Deposition lays down and deposites sediment in the rock cycle.
How do igneous rocks form?
Igneous rocks form when molten lava cools and crystallizes.
What are biochemical rocks?
Biochemical rocks are sedimentary rocks formed by organisms or contains the remains of organisms. The most common biochemical rocks are coal and limestone. Not all biochemical rocks are carbonates.
What is metamorphism?
Metamorphism is any process that affects the structure or composition of a rock in a solid state as a result of changes in temperature, pressure, or the addition of chemical fluids.
What are extrusive rocks and volcanic glass?
When volcanic material erupts and cools and crystallizes on Earth's surface it forms extrusive igneous rocks. Materials, such as lava and ash, solidify and form extrusive igneous rocks. These rocks have fine-grained texture.
Volcanic glass is rock that forms when lava cools too quickly to form crystals, such as obsidian.
What is magma?
Magma is molten rock stored beneath Earth's surface. When magma cools and crystallizes it forms an igneous rock.
When magma cools and crystallizes beneath Earth's surface it forms an instrusive igneous rock. Lava or ash that erupts and cools on Earth's surface forms extrusive igneous rocks. This is what magma is in the rock cycle.
Why are there holes in some igneous rocks?
When gas-rich lava erupts from a volcano, gases escape. Sometimes holes are left in the rock.
What are chemical rocks?
Chemical rocks from when minerals crystallize directly from water. They often have an interlocking crystalline texture. They are generally composed of one dominant mineral and are uniform in color. Gypsum is a good example of this.
What are two types of metamorphism and the definition of them?
Two types of metamorphism are contact metamorphism and regional metamorphism.
During contact metamorphism, magma comes in contact with existing rock, and thermal energy and gases interact with the surrounding, forming new metamorphic rock. It can increase crystal size or form new minerals and change a rock.
ex. marble
Regional metamamorphism is the formation of metamorphic rock bodies that are hundreds of square kilometers. Changes in temperature and pressure and the presence of chemical fluids act on large volumes of rock and produce metamorphic textures.
structures associated with regional metamorphism- Himalayas and Appalachian Mountains
What are intrusive rocks?
What is uplift?
Uplift is the process that moves large bodies of Earth materials to higher elevation.
Uplift moves rock materials higher in Earth's surface in the rock cycle.
Under what conditions do metamorphic rocks form?
Metamorphic rocks form under conditions of high temperature and pressure.
What is a clastic sedimentary rock?
A clastic sedimentary rock is a rock made up of broken pieces of minerals and rock fragments. A common example of this is sandstone.
How do you identify a metamorphic rock?
Changes in temperature, pressure, or the addition of chemical fluids can resukt in the rearrangement of minerals or the formation of new minerals in a metamorphic rock. Geologists study the texture and composition of minerals to identify metamorphic rocks.
Metamorphic rocks are classified into two groups based on texture.
How do you identify igneous rocks?
Igneous rocks are identified by texture and composition.