EARTH SCIENCE

EARTH MINERALS AND PROCESSES:

MINERALS AND ROCKS

Presented by:
Irish L. Solomon
11 stem
What Are Earth's Materials?
The next time you take a walk, think about what you are
walking on. What is the earth made of?

The outermost layer of the earth is known as the crust, and this layer is
responsible for the majority of life on Earth.

It supports the growth of plants, the survival of

animals, the structure of our land, and the
development of the human civilization

The earth's crust has four main components, which are referred
to as Earth's materials. These materials include minerals, rocks,
soil and water. It is the combination of these materials that
makes life on Earth possible.
-
MINERALS
 are naturally occurring inorganic solids that have
a crystalline structure and definite chemical
composition.
- are referred to as naturally occurring because
they are formed though natural geological
processes
- non-living and have a crystalline structure,
meaning the atoms that make up the mineral
are arranged in an orderly, three-dimensional
pattern that repeats itself.
- are said to have a definite composition
because all minerals are made up of specific
proportions of certain elements
- Salt is an example of a mineral. If you look
closely at a grain of salt, you will see that it is a
solid that has a specific shape and pattern.
rocks
• Now that we know what
minerals are, we can
discuss rocks. 
• Rocks are defined as
naturally formed
aggregates of minerals or
mineral-like substances.
Rocks can be made up of
one type of mineral,
several minerals, or no
minerals at all.
Rock cycle
• Rock cycle
• The rock cycle is a basic concept in
geology that describes transitions
through geologic time among the three
main rock types: sedimentary,
metamorphic, and igneous. Each rock
type is altered when it is forced out of its
equilibrium conditions
THREE TYPES OF ROCK
 1. SEDIMENTARY
2. IGNEOUS
3. METAMORPHIC
SEDIMENTARY
 Sedimentary Rocks

• Sedimentary rocks are types of

rock that are formed by the
accumulation or deposition of
mineral or organic particles at
Earth's surface, followed by
cementation. Sedimentation is the
collective name for processes that
• Physical features
• Sedimentary structures are the larger,
generally three-dimensional physical features
of sedimentary rocks; they are best seen in
outcrop or in large hand specimens rather than
through a microscope.
• Sedimentary structures include features
like bedding, ripple marks, fossil tracks and
trails, and mud cracks.
• Cycle Cycle
• The most important geological
processes that lead to the creation
of sedimentary rocks are erosion,
weathering, dissolution,
precipitation, and lithification.
• Erosion and weathering include
the effects of wind and rain, which
slowly break down large rocks into
smaller ones.
Process of sedimentary rock
• Thus, there are 4 major types of
sedimentary rocks: 

• Clastic Sedimentary Rocks,

• Chemical Sedimentary Rocks,
• Biochemical Sedimentary Rocks,
• and Organic Sedimentary Rocks.
Examples:
BRECC conglomerate
conglomerate shale
IA

sandstone siltstone limestone

IGNEOUS
 igneous
• Igneous rock (derived from the
Latin word ignis meaning fire),
or magmatic rock, is one of
the three main rock types, the
others being sedimentary and
metamorphic.
• Igneous rock is formed through
the cooling and solidification of
magma or lava.
Physical features
• Characteristics of Igneous Rocks
• The igneous form of rocks does not
include any fossil deposits. ...
• Most igneous forms include more
than one mineral deposit.
• They can be either glassy or coarse.
• These usually do not react with
acids.
• The mineral deposits are available in
the form of patches with different
sizes.
 Cycle
• Cycle
• This cycle is called the Rock Cycle.
Igneous Rocks: form by crystallizing
melted material (magma). They can
form either on the surface (extrusive
igneous rocks), or deep in the crust
(intrusive or plutonic igneous rocks).
Volcanoes are places where magma
erupts as lava or ash.
2 Main categories of igneous rock

• Extrusive rock
• Extrusive rock refers to the mode of igneous volcanic
rock formation in which hot magma from inside the Earth
flows out onto the surface as lava or explodes violently
into the atmosphere to fall back as pyroclastics or tuff. In
contrast, intrusive rock refers to rocks formed by magma
which cools below the surface.

Intrusive rock
Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing
rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form
intrusions, such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and
volcanic necks. Intrusion is one of the two ways igneous
rock can form. The other is extrusion, such as a volcanic
eruption or similar event.
• Extrusive igneous rocks erupt onto the surface,
where they cool quickly to form small crystals. Some
cool so quickly that they form an amorphous glass.
These rocks include: andesite, basalt, dacite,
obsidian, pumice, rhyolite, scoria, and tuff.
• Intrusive Igneous Rock
• Intrusive, or plutonic, igneous rock forms
when magma remains inside the Earth's
crust where it cools and solidifies in
chambers within pre-existing rock. The
magma cools very slowly over many thousands
or millions of years until is solidifies
METAMORPH
IC
Metamorphic rock
• Metamorphic rocks arise from the
transformation of existing rock to new types of
rock, in a process called metamorphism.
• The original rock is subjected to temperatures
greater than 150 to 200 °C and, often, elevated
pressure of 100 megapascals or more, causing
profound physical or chemical changes.
• Metamorphic rocks were once igneous or
sedimentary rocks, but have been changed
(metamorphosed) as a result of intense heat
and/or pressure within the Earth's crust. They
are crystalline and often have a “squashed”
(foliated or banded) texture.
 Metamorphism
• Metamorphism is the change of minerals or
geologic texture in pre-existing rocks, without
the protolith melting into liquid magma. The
change occurs primarily due to heat, pressure,
and the introduction of chemically active fluids.

There are three ways that

metamorphic rocks can form. The
three types of metamorphism are

 Contact,
Regional,
and Dynamic metamorphism.
Contact Metamorphism 
• occurs when magma comes in contact with
an already existing body of rock. When this
happens the existing rocks temperature rises
and also becomes infiltrated with fluid from
the magma.
• The area affected by the contact of magma
is usually small, from 1 to 10 kilometers.
Contact metamorphism produces non-
foliated (rocks without any cleavage) rocks
such as marble, quartzite, and hornfels.
In the diagram above magma has pushed its way into layers of limestone,
quartz sandstone and shale. The heat generated by the magma chamber has
changed these sedimentary rocks into the metamorphic rocks marble,
quartzite, an hornfels.
Regional Metamorphism 
• occurs over a much larger area. This
metamorphism produces rocks such as gneiss
and schist.
• is caused by large geologic processes such as
mountain-building. These rocks when exposed
to the surface show the unbelievable pressure
that cause the rocks to be bent and broken by
the mountain building process.
• usually produces foliated rocks such as gneiss
and schist.
Dynamic Metamorphism 
• also occurs because of mountain-building.
These huge forces of heat and pressure
cause the rocks to be bent, folded, crushed,
flattened, and sheared.

• Metamorphic rocks are divided into

two categories-
Foliates and
Non-foliates.
Foliates
•  are composed of large amounts of
micas and chlorites. These minerals
have very distinct cleavage.
• Foliated metamorphic rocks will
split along cleavage lines that are
parallel to the minerals that make up
the rock. Slate, as an example, will
split into thin sheets.
•  Foliate comes from the Latin word
that means sheets, as in the sheets of
paper in a book.
• Silt and clay can become deposited and compressed
into the sedimentary rock shale. The layers of shale
can become buried deeper and deeper by the
process of deposition.

•  Deposition
•  is the laying down of rock forming material by any
natural agent (wind, water, glaciers) over
time. Because these layers are buried, temperatures
and pressures become greater and greater until the
shale is changed into slate.  
Foliates
AND
Non-Foliates 
• are metamorphic rocks that have no
cleavage at all. Quartzite and marble
are two examples of non-foliates that
we are going to study.
The end…….
IRISH L. SOLOMON
11 STEM