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3 ROCKS
What is a Rock?
A rock is a naturally occurring solid mixture of one or
which rocks are changed by geologic activity into different types of rocks.
Rocks may follow various pathways
are physically and chemically broken down by water, air, and living things to produce sediment.
explaining the order in which minerals form as magma solidifies, or crystallizes, called Bowens Reaction Series.
According to this, minerals form in one of
two ways:
1.
2.
compound to maintain its original chemical composition rather than break down to form a different chemical.
Most stable minerals formed at lowest temperatures (similar to
A fine ceramic is more chemically stable than a metal when subjected to HCl.
zones of weakness, called joints, that form as the rock cools and contracts. Below is Devils Postpile National Monument in CA.
melting.
Minerals that melted last will crystallize out of the magma first.
enters, into other rock masses beneath Earths surface. The magma then slowly cools and hardens.
Lava cooling at Earths
Granit e
Diorite
Andesit e
Granite
Obsidia n
Pumic e
minerals, and organic material resulting from natural geologic processes are called sediment.
Combinations of different
in which sediment is squeezed and the pore space between sediment grains is reduced.
Cementation: the
process in which sediments are glued together by minerals that are deposited by water.
One reason minerals precipitate is due to evaporation (minerals are left behind once H20 evaporates, thus being called evaporites). Halite is an example of this type of sedimentary rock, made of sodium chloride, NaCl, or table salt (recall this is also a mineral). The Bonneville Salt Flats near the Great Salt Lake in UT are a good example of evaporite deposits.
Halit e
Most limestone forms from the remains, or fossils, of animals that once lived in the oceans. Some are made of the skeletons of tiny organisms called coral (coral reefs).
Coal forms from plant remains that are buried before they decay and are then compacted into matter composed mainly of carbon.
Fossiliferous Limestone
Coral Reef
Bituminous Coal
Classified by the size of the sediment they contain: Clastic sedimentary rock made of round fragments ranging from 2 mm. to boulders is called a conglomerate. If the fragments are angular with sharp corners, the rock is called a breccia.
Clastic sedimentary rock made up of sand-sized grains, mainly consisting of quartz, is called sandstone.
Clastic sedimentary rock consisting of flaky clay-sized particles is called shale.
Conglomera te
Breccia
Sandston e
Shale
Rivers
Beache s
Delta s
Ocea ns
when different sizes and shapes of sediment settle to different levels of rock is called graded bedding.
Commonly transition from largest grains on the bottom to
water on sand; often preserved in sandstone and shows the sediment was once part of a beach or river bed.
Another feature of sedimentary
rocks are mud cracks, which form when muddy deposits dry and shrink.
Fossiliferou s Limestone
Conglomera te
Shal e
Types of Metamorphism
1. Contact Metamorphism: a change in the texture, structure, or chemical composition of a rock due to contact with magma.
Types of Metamorphism
2. Regional Metamorphism: a change in the texture, structure, or chemical composition of a rock due to changes in temperature and pressure over a large area.
Gneiss
in which mineral grains are not arranged in planes or bands is called non-foliation.
Quartzit e
Gnei ss Amphibolit e
Marble
Quartzit e
Anthracit e Coal
Slat e
Phyllit e
Schi st