Okay, let's take a quick look at the rock cycle
Here's a diagram showing the rock cycle in the Earth's crust [this] particular diagram can be found in the New York State Earth science reference
tables
What it shows are the different types of rocks and how they can change over time?
Let's go through a quick example here
is a chunk of an igneous rock known as granite you can see it's made up of inter grown crystals of
Potassium Feldspar and quartz and biotite and that's what gives it its speckled look
Now as we mentioned Granite's [an] igneous Rock which forms from the solidification of melted Material Magma or Lava?
Granite happens to Form deep underground from the slow cooling of Magma
But the question we want to look at now is well
What can happen to this igneous rock over time and there's a handful of possibilities?
The first thing that could happen is our granite could be lifted up forced up from beneath the ground
Where it's exposed to weathering and erosion the wind the rain the ice?
These forces break this rock down into little small pieces called sediments
So now our granite has been broken into small pieces of granite
Now these little small sediments can be deposited and buried and then
Compacted and cemented together to form a [brand-new] Rock called a sedimentary rock
like this piece of Sandstone
so simply by weathering and eroding the granite into sediments and then
Squeezing the sediments back together you've converted your igneous rock into a sedimentary rock
But that's not the [only] [thing] that can happen to our igneous rock
what if it is pushed even deeper underground by the movement of Earth's tectonic plates and
In so it is exposed to intense heat and/or pressure
causing it to metamorphose, or
Recrystallize into a metamorphic rock like this piece of nice seen here
So with the simple addition of some heat and pressure we've turned our igneous rock into a metamorphic rock
But there's still one more option
what if our igneous rock is exposed to intense heat causing it to melt and
Return into liquid state of magma well it can then of course cool and solidify
again giving us another igneous rock
But maybe this time it will cool quickly
And give us something with smaller crystals or maybe no crystals at all like this piece of obsidian
So what you can see is that on the rock cycle?
Any rock is able to turn into any other [rock] when exposed to the different processes in
And on the Earth's surface
Remember we start with these three types of rocks these are [our] three classifications and from them. We [can] go to anything else
Again, Let's look at the igneous Rock right igneous Rock we know forms from melting into magma and solidification
But remember it can melt again and that process can happen over and over and over again
So I can have an igneous rock that becomes igneous again. Maybe a different kind of igneous rock
but any
Rock can melt into magma and form an igneous rock as seen on the chart sedimentary metamorphic rocks
They can all be melted and ultimately result in an igneous rock forming
Well, let's look at the sedimentary rock and I remember these form from sediments sediments that have been deposited and buried and pressure
Causing them to compact and cement together but of course any rock can be weathered into sediments and therefore any
Metamorphic or igneous Rock can become a sedimentary rock?
Finally we have our metamorphic rock and remember these form when rocks are exposed to intense heat and pressure
But of course that process can take place with any type of rock sedimentary igneous or even metamorphic rocks
So the key idea behind the rock cycle is the fact that any
Rock can become any other kind of rock it can even become itself
Change is always taking place. It's generally slow over many millions of Years however the results can be impressive
oof
oofer gang