YES, AMANDA! HOWEVER, THE REAL QUESTION IS DO YOU KNOW WHAT TYPE?

LOOK MR. WEBBER, THERE ARE SOME INTERESTING ROCKS!

What is a rock?

"A rock is a group of minerals stuck together in some way. Rocks can teach us about the history of the earth, including it's formation and possible organisms that have gone extinct. Minerals can be cemented, melted, and squished together to form a rock. Rocks are sorted into the following three groups based off of the way they form: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic." - Mr Webber

"Wow! I never knew that rocks could be so cool, I thought they were just hard pieces of dirt!" - Amanda

Rock cycle

"This a diagram of the processes each rock, sediment, or magma must go through to become the other. It is the continuous cycle the rocks go through to change physical and chemical compositions."-Mr. Webber

"Woah rocks can change!?"-Amanda

What is an igneous rock?

"The word igneous comes from the Latin word fire, ignis, which is a great way to remember igneous rocks. Here is some vocabulary to better understand igneous rocks.

felsic: light-colored rocks made mostly of feldspar and silica

mafic: rocks made of dark minerals with lots of iron and magnesium

crystalline: having the structure and form of crystals

vesicular: igneous rock with many holes from trapped air escaping

molten: liquified by heat

magma: hot molten rock and trapped gasses below Earth’s surface

lava: molten rock that has come out of the ground"-Mr. Webber

What is an igneous rock?

"Igneous rock is rock that forms from cooling and crystallization of magma! The two types of igneous rock are, intrusive and extrusive. Intrusive rocks form when magma cools slowly below Earth's surface. The magma below cools for a very long amount of time, thousands or millions of years, then solidifies! Because of how long it takes to cool, a lot of time is left for crystals to grow which is why slower cooling=larger crystals. Extrusive rocks form at volcanic eruptions! Lava coming from the eruption, solidifies and cools quickly. When introduced to the cool temperature of the atmosphere it quickly solidifies. The fast cooling system makes smaller crystals because there is less time to grow. This results in fine-grained or glassy texture. Some are vesicular because there are often hot gas bubbles in lava which gets passed to the rock leaving vesicular texture."-Mr. Webber

How To identify an igneous rock

"These rocks are classified by texture and what minerals are in them. Texture is the size of the crystals in the rock, it is determined by the amount of time that lava or magma has to cool to become a rock. A coarse texture=formed from magma, rock cools slowly=large crystals, intrusive rock is coarse. Fine, glassy, or vesicular texture=formed by lava, cools quickly=small crystals, extrusive rock is fine, glassy or vesicular. Felsic igneous rocks contain aluminum (Al), they are light in color, and have a low density. Mafic igneous rocks contain iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg), they are dark in color, and have a high density."-Mr. Webber

how to identify igneous rock

"This is the reference table, it tells you which rocks fall into which category and more information about them. For example, rhyolite is an extrusive rock with crystal sizes of less then 1 mm, a fine texture, and nonvesicular. It is also lighter in color, lower in density, so it's felsic. It is made of these minerals: potassium feldspar, quartz, plagioclase feldspar, biotite, and amphibole." -Mr. Webber

WHat is a sedimentary rock?

"Sedimentary rocks usually form in flat, horizontal layers that stack on top of each other like a yummy pancake. The ingredients of sedimentary rocks include loose pieces of rock, sand, dust, clay, or dirt of sediments compacted together. Sedimentary rocks are formed from other rocks, fossils, and minerals or the big kid word, lithification [lith-uh-fi-key-shuhn] of sediments. Sedimentary rocks form at low temperatures and pressures compared to other rocks because they are made of materials that were deposited and buried at the earth's surface. Sedimentary rocks aren’t found deep in the earth because the higher temperatures and pressures deep in the earth would melt them. Guess what?!?! If you ever go on a sedimentary rock quest, well I can help you determine how old it is. Younger sedimentary rocks are distance poorly sorted with angular grains. Older sedimentary rocks are distance well sorted with rounded grains." -Mr. Webber

"There are three main types of sedimentary rocks such as clastic, crystalline, and bioclastic... to better understand, here are some vocabulary":

"Clastic Rock (chunks) - Sedimentary rocks formed when pieces of other rocks or sediments are cemented together.

Crystalline Rock (removal of water) - Sedimentary rocks formed when minerals are dissolved in water and then the water evaporates.

Biochemical/Bioclastic (organic) - Sediments originate from living creatures (sometimes considered to be a subset of chemical sedimentary rock)"-Mr. Webber

• "Sedimentary rocks cover the majority of the Earth's rocky surface but only make up a small percentage of the Earth’s crust compared to metamorphic and igneous types of rocks.
• The sediment is compressed over a long period of time before consolidating into solid layers of rock.
• Sedimentary rocks are formed by sediment that is deposited over time, usually as layers at the bottom of lakes and oceans
• Examples of sedimentary rocks include limestone, sandstone, mudstone, coal, claystone and flint.
• Limestone forms the metamorphic rock marble when subjected to extreme heat and pressure over time (metamorphism)."-Mr. Webber

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