I dedicate this book to my science teacher for teaching me all I need to know about rocks!

Let's go follow the way of my life! Lets start way back in the beginning!

Table of Contents

1) Beginning of My Life's Journey 4

2) Minerals 5

3) Identifying Minerals 6

4) My Life Begins as an Igneous Rock 8

5) Next Stop, Sedimentary Rocks 10

6) Metamorphic Rock Time 12

7) Back Again 13

8) Rock Cycle 15

9) Questions 16

10) Glossary 20

The Beginning of My Life's Journey

Hey! My name is Robin and I'm a igneous rock that went on an amazing adventure, traveling the route of the rock cycle! I wasn't always a rock though. Just like all rocks, I started off as a mineral. Now let me explain to you how my journey went.

Minerals

Remember when I told you I wasn't always an igneous rock? All rocks start off as a mineral. A mineral is an inorganic solid that is identified by its chemical and physical properties. The top 5 properties commonly used to identify minerals are color, streak, cleavage/fracture, luster and hardness.

Identifying Minerals

Color- Minerals come in various different colors. This property is unreliable simply because many minerals share the same colors.

Streak- The streak test is done by scraping a the mineral across a piece of a streak plate. This can produce a small amount of powder on the surface of the plate. The powder color of that mineral known as its streak. The minerals color and streak color can be different.

Cleavage and Fracture- When a mineral's breakage is the same way every time and breaks into strait pieces, it is called cleavage. When a mineral's breakage is never the same and

breaks with jagged edges, it is called fracture.

Luster- How a mineral looks when light is against it. Mainly a mineral can be metallic or non-metallic, but it can also be shiny, dull, pearly, etc.

Hardness- Minerals vary in hardness. you determine a minerals hardness by following the Moh's scale. You can either scrape the mineral against another mineral or scratch the mineral with something like a penny or fingernail to determine the hardness.

My life begins as an Ineous Rock!

Let me take you back to day i first became a rock...

Ow! That's hot! I have always been a mineral on the inside of a volcano, but one day that all changed. I felt a rush of burning hot magma pushing ,me up to the surface! Today was the day i was going to become an extrusive igneous rock! I always wanted to become an extrusive igneous rock. If I was an intrusive igneous rock, I would still be in the inside of the Earth. Why would you want to stay in the same place for your whole life? I have already been in the Earths crust for 2 years of my life so I was so excited to finally go on the journey of the rock cycle. When I burst into the air, I felt myself automatically

change. Before I knew it, I was solidifying into a rock. I was thrilled I was finally a rock! I had a glassy shine and very fine crystals. But then over the years I laid there and got bored with my life. Then the rain started to come down hard. A huge storm came and I started breaking into tiny sediments. Where is my life taking me now?

As I was breaking up, I figured I was going through the process weathering and erosion. I can't believe I was finally on the move again! From what I remember about the rock cycle, I'm going to turn into a sedimentary rock now! The wind picked me up and moved into a river. The water, oh the water! How it felt so nice after being stuck in the same place for YEARS! As I was floating in the river, I got stuck and couldn't move with the river. Once again, I couldn't go anywhere, but this time it was different. When Iwas an igneous rock, I watched the days go by. Now, I felt like I as being pulled tighter together everyday. I realized I was going

Next Stop, Sedimentary Rock!

through compaction and cementation. It felt like you were on the bottom of the dog pile, but instead of people being topped on you, elephants were! Honestly, it was VERY painful. Eventually, the pressure stopped and I felt like a whole new rock. Technically, I was! I'm now a sedimentary rock! I am formed in layers and my layers are like my family! I have recently been added to this sedimentary layer so I am the youngest of my group. My "family" explained to me the law of superposition. I asked them what we do and they replied by saying that we do nothing. I was furious! just great! More years of waiting!

Metamorphic Rock Time!

Eventually, after about decades of waiting, we moved! I was so exited! We moved down the river and then a storm hit. The river was flooded so the water picked us up and moved us to a mountain range. While we were there, we experienced the worst heat and pressure. The heat and pressure lasted for years and years! My bands were visible, thus I was a foliated rock. We were squeezed so tightly we started to morph into ANOTHER rock! We turned into a metamorphic rock! All of these changes made me feel completely messed up. I just wanted to be an igneous rock again!

Back again!

It turns out that when you're changing to become a metamorphic rock, if too much heat is applied, you turn into magma. I knew that I would soon turn back into an igneous rock. Once I cooled down and solidified, I was back to my original self! I was so happy! Although my adventure was fun, you know what is like to be home after a long journey. All of those changes were hard and being home felt good.

That was the story of my journey through the rock cycle!