M2: Rocks, Rock Cycle, and Fossil Fuels.

A rock is a naturally formed, non-living earth material. Rocks are made of collections of mineral
grains that are held together in a firm, solid mass.

There are three types of rocks:

Igneous rock forms when magma or lava cools to a solid form, either glass or masses of tightly
intergrown mineral crystals.
● Magma – molten rocks inside the Earth’s crust
● Lava – magma that reaches the surface
Crystals are large if they had a long time to grow in a slowly cooling magma. They are small if they
formed quickly in rapidly cooling lava.
They are classified according to:
● origin
● texture
● composition
 
ORIGIN
INTRUSIVE or PLUTONIC - Formed from magma (inside the Earth) and tends to take a long time to
solidify into rock. Has Phaneritic textures.
EXTRUSIVE or VOLCANIC - Formed from lava (Earth’s surface) and tends to solidify quickly.
Common textures include aphanitic and porphyritic.
 
TEXTURE
PHANERITIC
● Coarse-grained
● Forming large interlocking crystals
PORPHYRITIC
● formed through two stages of crystallization wherein magma partly cooled below the surface
of the earth providing time for the large crystals to grow (phenocrysts) before it is extruded
to the surface forming the fine-grained matrix (groundmass).
APHANITIC
● Fine-grained
● minerals not visible to the naked eye; relatively fast rates of cooling/ solidification prevent the
formation of large crystals.
GLASSY
● Natural glass with very few crystals
● Formed by very rapid cooling
VESICULAR
● voids created by rapid cooling which causes air bubbles to be trapped inside
PYROCLASTIC
● Contains pieces of ash, or other molten blobs embedded in them

 
COMPOSITION
Felsic: granitic: >65% silica, generally light-colored
Intermediate: andesitic: 55-65% silica, generally medium colored (medium gray)
Mafic: basaltic: 45-55% silica, usually dark colored
Ultramafic: <45% silica, generally very dark-colored
 ● Formed at or near the surface of the Earth.
● Forms when mineral crystals and clasts of plants, animals, or rocks are compressed or
naturally cemented together.
● Also forms when mineral crystals precipitate from water to form a rocky mass such as rock
salt or cave stalactites.
● Sedimentary processes include weathering, erosion, deposition, compaction, and
cementation.

Clastic Sedimentary
● formed from the eroded parts of other rocks
● grains, matrix, and cement are the components of clastic rocks
Non-Clastic Sedimentary
1. Evaporites - rocks formed from the evaporation of water leaving the dissolved minerals to
crystallize
2. Precipitates - rocks formed when minerals from mineral supersaturated waters start to
crystallize at the bottom of the solution
3. Bioclastic - rock formed from compacted organic matter

● formed below the surface of the earth through the process of metamorphism with the
recrystallization of minerals in rocks due to changes in pressure and temperature conditions.
Contact Metamorphism
 ● heat and reactive fluids as main factors
● occurs when a pre-existing rock gets in contact with magma which is the source of heat and
magmatic fluids where metamorphic alterations and transformations occur around the
contact / metamorphic aureole of the intruding magma and the rock layers.
● Creates non-foliated metamorphic rocks

 
Regional Metamorphism
● pressure as the main factor
● occurs in areas that have undergone a considerable amount of mechanical deformation and
chemical recrystallization during the orogenic events which are commonly associated with
mountain belts.
● occurs in a regional/large scale
● creates foliated metamorphic rocks