Rocks and Minerals

Close your eyes and try to imagine our world with no rocks. Can you do it? If there were no rocks there would be no food, toothpaste, pencils, silverware, plates, makeup, statues and so much more. Soil is primarily made of minerals and rock pieces. Without soil no one could grow food. Look around your home and notice all the items made of or dependent on rocks and minerals. In the morning you turn off your alarm clock that contains quartz, you brush your teeth with toothpaste made of minerals. As you turn the light on in your bathroom notice the sheetrock making the walls that divide your home into rooms, these are made with gypsum. In your kitchen you may pick up a juice glass made of silica sand, talc, feldspar and soda ash. Your kitchen may have countertops made of granite. In this module you will learn how minerals are identified, how rocks are formed and classified. You will study the types of rocks and the rock cycle. You will compare natural products with manufactured ones and finally you will study fossils. You will learn how fossils help scientist to know and learn about the climate in the past.

Essential Questions

How are minerals identified?
How are rocks formed?
How are rocks classified?
How can a rock transform into another type of rock?

Key Terms

Igneous rock - a type of rock that forms from the cooling of molten rock at or below the surface
Sedimentary rock - a type of rock that forms when particles from other rocks or the remains of plants and animals are pressed and cemented together
Metamorphic rock- a type of rock that forms from an existing rock that is changed by heat, pressure, or chemical reactions
Rock cycle - a slow process that recycles rocks
Fossil - are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past
Lithification - the process in which sediments compact under pressure, fluids fill in between spaces of particles crystallize and create rock by cementation
Sediment - bits of sand, rocks, shells, dirt
Extrusive - igneous rock that formed outside of the Earth
Intrusive - igneous rock that formed inside the Earth
Cleavage - to break into a smooth surface
Mineral - a natural inorganic substance with a definite chemical make up
Granite - common intrusive igneous rock
Basalt - the most common igneous rock made from lava
Gritty - small hard particles of stone
Crystallized - to form or cause to form crystals
Molten - made liquid by great heat
Atoms - the smallest particle of an element
Element - one of the simple substances, such as gold iron, carbon, sulfur, oxygen and vapors
Graphite - one of the softest minerals able to leave a mark
Stone - chalky sedimentary rock
Gypsum - sedimentary rock formed by evaporation of salt water
Zinc - ore found in deposits of sedimentary volcanic rocks
Ore - source of most useful metals
Conglomerate - rounded rocks (pebbles, boulders) cemented together in a matrix
Compaction - the process that presses sediments together
Cementation - the process in which dissolved minerals crystallize and glue particles of sediment together

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