Module 6: Rocks

Part of a healthy lifestyle is paying attention to the nutrition you get in your food. You cannot fully understand the nutritional value of a food until you analyze its ingredients. The same concept can be applied to the Earth. To better understand the planet Earth, it is helpful to analyze its composition. The Earth is composed of a variety of elements that make up minerals. Minerals combine to form rocks. All of the rocks that exist on Earth are divided into three different groups. Each group has special characteristics that distinguish them visibly from each other. 

By studying rocks, you can learn more about the Earth’s past, and can gain insight to the Earth’s future. In this module, you will learn about igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks, sedimentary rocks, and the rock cycle. You will investigate each rock type, as well as the processes that form and change all rocks.

 

Getting Started

Before you explore rocks, check to see how much you already know about them. In this non-graded activity, read each statement and decide whether it is True or False. Click the player button to get started.

 

 

Key Vocabulary

To view the definitions for these key vocabulary terms, visit the course glossary.

angular sediment	foliated texture	non-foliated texture
cementation	fossil	organic sedimentary rock
chemical sedimentary rock	frothy	parent rock
clastic sedimentary rock	glassy	pore space
coarse-grained	hydrothermal metamorphism	recrystallization
compaction	igneous intrusion	regional metamorphism
contact metamorphism	igneous rocks	rock cycle
crystallization	intermediate	rounded sediment
deposition	intrusive	sediments
erosion	lava	sedimentologist
extrusive	mafic	stratification
felsic	magma	texture
fine-grained	metamorphism	weathering