Rock Classification Essay

The collection of the rocks was based on just picking up the most amount of difference looking rocks that was possible and bringing them home to analyze. This was done for about two months from many difference locations including campgrounds, beaches, rivers, highways as well as construction sites. After about two months there were many rocks so I started to analyze and take out the rocks that were of the same kind. I found many granite, basalt and conglomerate rocks.

Next, these rocks undergo erosion, which is the process of moving sediments from one place to another. Then, these sediments are deposited all at one place and over time they start to converge and cement as layers which are also known as strata. As time keeps going, new sediments deposit and cement together over old ones forming new layers. This is a repetitive process that eventually build up layers to make up a Sedimentary rock. Approximately 40 major sedimentary rock layers exposed in the Grand Canyon National Park area range in age from about 200 million to nearly 2 billion years old. As you can see, sedimentary rock formation takes an excessive amount of time.

Despite a family history of geophysicists and rock enthusiasts, I’ve never found the subject of rocks particularly fascinating. However, an exploration of Earth Science has lead me to the discovery that rocks are actually hidden gems (often literally), and that there’s more to the topic than one would think.

2. Use the geologic definition of a mineral to determine which of the items listed in Figure 1.1 (p.3 lab book) are minerals and which are not minerals. Put an “X” in the appropriate box.

Next, we can see that the rock displays a subtle porphyritic texture with plagioclase comprising the phenocrysts. The overall texture of the surrounding groundmass is granoblastic equigranular. Under thin section we also see a weakly defined foliation evidenced in the preferential alignment of actinolite grains and to a lesser extent chlorite grains. Undulose extinction is also observed in quartz indicating the rock was subject to deformation. The normalized quartz, alkali-feldspar, and plagioclase (QAP) values of this rock indicate that it is classified as a grano-diorite according to the IUGS QAPF classification system which is consistent with the hand sample interpretation.

Below these Carboniferous rocks, Devonian rocks are also exposed. These rocks can be found along the northern edge and southeastern margin of the plateau, where strata is nearly vertical. These two geologic systems have also been subdivided into numerous formations categorized according to their lithologic aspect and the fossil fauna and flora which they

If you’re anything like me and you see this painting of “The Rock” by Peter Blume (1944), you may wonder what in the world is going on in the picture. At our first look, we see the obvious; the enormous rock Peter Blume placed right in the center. After looking at the scenery going on, I think that the placement and size of the rock is proportioned that way as a sign of it being significant. The way I see it, the monument plays an important role when it comes down to determining why there are so many things going on at once in the painting. With the comparison of the details of the hard working people to the broken rock, half built building, and the smoke, I will establish the reasons of why this picture shows both destruction and loyalty- and the ways destruction in this painting also results in uniting the people working.

Convection currents may bring magma to the surface at diverging boundaries. Sedimentary rocks from the ocean floor gets pushed down to the mantle at convergent boundaries. The crust soon melts and rises to the surface creating igneous rock. Typically mountain ranges are metamorphic rock, maybe our mountains are.

There are two types of minerals that we find in Earth - rock-forming and ore minerals.

Metamorphic rocks are the result of the transformation of a pre-existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in

The formation of Earth and other planetary bodies through the processes of condensation and accretion was essentially complete _____ years ago.

A mineral is a naturally substance that happens, in this process an inorganic material creates a solid crystal like material that has a specific chemical composition. All the matters that make up a mineral are natural and made up from the earth and do not have living matter in them. The structure makes it three dimensional, which means that it has a particular shape that repeats itself. Now compared to a rock, which is also an inorganic material, however it has not certain atomic structure compared to minerals. Rocks are made up of several different minerals, which have been “stuck” together in a geological process that formed

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is also known as the New Madrid Fault Line. A fault is a thin zone of crushed rock that separates the Earth’s crust. Whenever an earthquake takes place, it occurs on one of the faults. Then the rock on one of the sides slips with respect to the other. The fault line is made up of reactivated faults. The reactivated faults formed when North America began to separate. Faults were formed next to rift and igneous rocks were formed from the magma that was pushed up to the surface (Wapedia (2010). The rift was covered with younger sediments. The sediments that covered the rift included Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of the Mississippi embayment. Large amounts of the sediment was loosely consolidated, soft and sandy as a result of the ground shaking, ground deformation, slides, slumps, and liquefaction. A mass of intrusive igneous rock (also known as pluton, mass of igneous rock and a deep reservoir of magma)

The rock coquina is originally a sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rocks are made up of sediments. The sediments are formed by the mechanical or chemical activities of the natural activities like running water, blowing wind, glaciers etc. this which causes disintegration and decomposition of the pre-existing rocks. The products of decay are transported to some depositional sites by the natural agencies, where they get deposited and with subsequent compaction form sedimentary rocks (Hefferan, O’Brien, 2010). . The sedimentary rocks usually accumulate under a great variety of conditions. This shows the variation in rock, chemical structure as well as in texture. Weathering is the most important process that operates in the

     Metamorphic rocks are pre-existing rocks that are changed by heat and pressure. The pre-existing rock is called the parent rock, or protolith. Metamorphism occurs in these rocks when the minerals become instable. There are two types of metamorphism, contact and regional. Contact is high temperature, low pressure. It is basically a massive rock that is baked. Regional is high pressure and low temperature. Strong fabric, or layering, develops from