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Rocks and minerals

Discovering Geology

What is a rock?

A rock is a solid collection of minerals. There are three main types of rock, classified by how they are sourced and formed:

sedimentary
igneous
metamorphic

Sedimentary rock. The word

‘sediment’ comes from the Latin
words sedimentum, meaning settling,
or sedē re, to sit or sink down. Igneous rocks. T
comes from the
The processes of weathering and meaning fire.
erosion gradually break up rocks into
sediments. After sediments are At plate boundar
The rock cycle. The diagram shows deposited, they can become buried some rocks get h
how the Earth is a dynamic system: all underneath layers of ‘fresh’ Earth and melt in
of its parts are connected to each and sediments. Over long periods of time, Molten rock is ca
changes in one part produce a change layers of sediments become inside the Earth
in another, resulting in a continuous compacted and cemented, and they the surface. As it
cycle throughout geological time. BGS are transformed into sedimentary and solidifies to
© UKRI. rocks. BGS © UKRI. BGS © UKRI.

‹ ›

Sedimentary rocks

Igneous rocks

Metamorphic rocks
What are minerals?

Mineral specimen of chalcanthite, from the Royal Geological Society Cornwall collection. BGS © UKRI.

A mineral is a naturally occurring substance with distinctive chemical and physical properties, composition and atomic structure.

Rocks are generally made up of two of more minerals, mixed up through geological processes. For example granite is an igneous
rock mostly made from different proportions of the minerals quartz, feldspar and mica as interlocked crystals; a sandstone is a
sedimentary rock that can also contain quartz, feldspar and mica, but as grains compacted and cemented into each other.

The definition of an economic mineral is broader. Economic minerals are extracted from the Earth by quarrying, mining and
pumping and used in a wide range of applications related to construction, manufacturing, agriculture and energy supply. They
include:

minerals
metals
rocks like building stones and aggregates
hydrocarbons: both solid, like coal, and liquid, like petroleum

Visit the MineralsUK website for more information about economic minerals.

We have rock loan kits you can borrow. If you have your own collection of rock samples you can use the downloadable rock info
sheets.

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