All rocks belong to one of the three main groups making up the earth's crust: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
Igneous Rock
Igneous rock is any rock made by the cooling of magma or lava. Magma is molten material that flows under the earth's crust. Sometimes it finds a weak spot and breaks through to form great areas of rock called flood basalts, or it may erupt as a volcano. Besides basalt, examples of igneous rock are granite and obsidian. Igneous rocks come with or without observable crystals that are not in layers or with or withour air holes or glasslike.
Igneous Rock Examples
Obsidian - A usually black or banded, hard volcanic glass that displays
shiny, curved surfaces when fractured and is formed by rapid cooling of lava.
Granite - A common, coarse-grained, light-colored, hard igneous rock
consisting chiefly of quartz, orthoclase or microcline, and mica, used in monuments and for building.
Pumice - A light, porous, glassy lava, used in solid form as an abrasive and in powdered form as a polish and an abrasive. Basalt - A hard, dense, dark volcanic rock composed chiefly of plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine, and often having a glassy appearance.
Sedimentary Rock
Sedimentary is gravel, sand, clay, or soil that settles out of water in
riverbeds, ponds, lakes, and oceans. Sediment may contain shells and skeletons. Sedimentary rock is formed in layers, like a giant cake, after sediment has been under great pressure for millions of years. If the sediment was originally sand, it becomes sandstone. Clay turns into shale. Shells and skeletons make limestone. Small pebbles and sand form conglomerate. Sedimentary rocks are rounded-appearing mineral and rock particles that are cemented together.
Sedimentary Rock Examples
Sandstone - A sedimentary rock formed by the consolidation and
compaction of sand and held together by a natural cement, such as silica.
Limestone - A common sedimentary rock consisting mostly of calcium
carbonate, CaCO3, used as a building stone and in the manufacture of lime, carbon dioxide, and cement.
Shale - A fissile rock composed of layers of claylike, fine-grained
sediments.
Conglomerate - A rock consisting of pebbles and gravel embedded in
cement.
Metamorphic Rock Metamorphic rock has been through a process much like baking. (Meta means changed, and mophic means form.) The change is caused by intense heat and great pressure deep in the earth. Under these conditins, sedimetary limestone becomes marbel. Sedimentery sandstone turns into quartzite. Igneous granite changes into gneiss (pronounced "nice". Metamorphic rocks are crystals/minerals, often in layers.
Metamorphic Rock Examples
gneiss - A common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-
grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.
Schist - The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic
rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others
Quartzite - a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone.
The Rock Cycle Diagram
A useful way to illustrate how the three main types of rock are related to one another and how changes to rocks happen in a recurring sequence is the rock cycle. It can be presented in a diagram like the one below.
The concept of the rock cycle is attributed to James Hutton (1726—
1797), the 18th-century founder of modern geology. The main idea is that rocks are continually changing from one type to another and back again, as forces inside the earth bring them closer to the surface (where they are weathered, eroded, and compacted) and forces on the earth sink them back down (where they are heated, pressed, and melted). So the elements that make up rocks are never created or destroyed — instead, they are constantly being recycled. The rock cycle helps us to see that the earth is like a giant rock recycling machine!
