EARTH SCIENCE - EARTH MATERIALS

Rock Cycle

The process depends on the temperature, pressure, time and changes in the environmental conditions in the earth’s crust and its surface

Crystallization

As the magma cools different crystals form at different temperatures

Erosion and Deposition

Weathering wears down rocks on Earth’s surface into smaller pieces

Metamorphism

A rock that is exposed to extreme heat and pressure but does not melt becomes a metamorphic rock

Igneous Rocks

Solidify from magma; a molten mixture of rock-forming minerals are usually volatiles such as gases and steam

Extrusive Rock

Mode of igneous volcanic rock formation in which hot magma from inside the Earth flows out (Extrudes) onto the surface as lava or explodes violently into the atmosphere to fall back as pyroclastic or tuff

Intrusive Rock

Formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form intrusions, such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks

Sedimentary rocks

Those that are deposited and lithified (compacted and cemented together) at the Earth’s surface, with the assistance of running water, wind, ice, or living organisms

Erosion

The action of surface processes that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust and then transports it to another location where it is deposited

Deposition

The process by which aerosol particles collect or deposit themselves on solid surfaces, decreasing the concentration of the particles in the air. It can be divided into two sub-processes: dry and wet deposition.

Compaction

Decrease of the volume of a fixed mass of sediment from any cause, commonly from continual sediment deposition at a particular site.

Cementation

Involves ions carried in groundwater chemically precipitating to form new crystalline material between sedimentary grains.

Metamorphic Rocks

Formed by changes in preexisting rocks under the influence of high temperature, pressure, and chemically active solutions

Minerals

A naturally occurring, inorganic solid with a well-defined chemical composition and crystal structure

Silicate

They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of earth’s crust

Carbonate

a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals

Iron-Bearing

sedimentary rocks in which the proportion of iron exceeds 15 percent are separately categorized as iron-rich.