Chapter 7: Rocks and Minerals

1. Earth Scientists: Nature

Detectives
2. Elements and Atoms:
Basic Building Blocks
3. Minerals
4. Igneous Rocks
5. Sedimentary Rocks
6. Metamorphic Rocks
7. The Rock Cycle and
Mineral Resources
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Earth Scientists: Nature Detectives

Are the rocks on

Mars the same as
rocks on Earth?

The Good Earth, Chapter 7: Rocks and Minerals

Earth Scientists: Nature Detectives

• Understanding rocks enables scientists to

• Locate mineral resources (e.g., copper, gypsum)
• Find fossil fuels (e.g., oil, gas, coal)
• Assess the risk from natural hazards such as
volcanic eruptions and tsunami
• Learn about Earth processes such as plate
tectonics
• Discover the history and origins of other planets

The Good Earth, Chapter 7: Rocks and Minerals

Earth Scientists: Nature Detectives

• Neptunism
• Rocks formed in a global ocean when material
sank to ocean floor or was precipitated from
chemical reactions

• Plutonism
• Heat from Earth’s interior melted rocks or
caused them to fuse together

The Good Earth, Chapter 7: Rocks and Minerals

 Earth Scientists: Nature Detectives
Examination of the production of bricks – manufactured
materials with some of the same characteristics as rocks -
can provide clues to rock formation processes

Bricks are made from raw materials Variations in the composition of raw
such as shale or fireclay found at materials produces different brick colors.
Earth’s surface Red bricks contain more iron.
The Good Earth, Chapter 7: Rocks and Minerals