Describing Rocks
Natural aggregates made up of one of various minerals
What are rocks?
A substance made of melted materials, gases,and water, formed in the Earth's interior
What is magma?
The process in which sediments transform into sedimentary rocks
What is diagenesis or lithification?
Solid, inorganic, natural materials with definite chemical composition and crystalline structure
What are minerals?
Small fragments of rock that have been transported and deposited by wind or water
What are sediments?
The process in which rocks change into different types of rocks
What is metamorphism?
This describes a mineral's resistance to scratching
What is hardness?
Rocks that form when lava cools on Earth's surface
What are volcanic igneous rocks?
A series of processes that a rock goes through to change into another type of rock
What is the rock cycle?
The scale used to identify hardnesses of different minerals
What is Mohs scale?
Rocks that are formed when magma cools slowly inside of Earth's crust
What are plutonic igneous rocks?
A place where large rocks are extracted and cut into blocks or slabs
What is a quarry?
This describes the way a mineral breaks
What is cleavage?
The most abundant plutonic rock in the continental crust
What is granite?
A place where minerals are extracted from a large funnel-shaped hole
What is an opencast mine?