Sabrina RichardsGeology 13506 Oct 2015The Rock CycleAbove and below the earth’s surface rocks are always changing andtheir change to igneous sedimentary and metamorphic rock has no start or end. Ittakes thousands even millions of years for the essential elements of materials thatare interrelated by intrusive and extrusive processes in the atomsphere biosphere hydrosphere and listhosphere to change to change a rocks type.The process of formation and distribution of these rock types is reflectedin the rock cycle diagram which conveys the unending cyclic nature of this one –way process following the different colored arrows. The arrows represent the one– way path from one rock type to another that leads to metamorphic rock. Thisprocess is called metamorphism and there are three rocks sedimentary igneousand metamorphic leads to metamorphic rock. The rock cycle figure illustrates thepathway that leads to the surface sediments weathered into fragments caused bythe wind and the water breaking rocks into pieces called Erosion and Depositioncaused by the movement of the rocks not breaking down creating Litification forming sediment layers of sedimentary bedrock (depicted in various colors).The metamorphism process is drive by the materials metamorphic rocks litification and igneous rocks processes exposed to intense heat and pressure at depth.Any existing rock forced down by motion from tectonic plates in to the earth crust willcause it to change. Viewing the rock cycle diagram presents a pathway that transforms many of theminerals and weld them into metamorphic rocks through exstensive heat melting andcooling causing crystallization and consolidation showing the importance of the forceswithin the earth and heat in the upper mantle drives the creation of the new igneous rockadding to the earths crust.The viewer using the concepts of the cycles can trace the movement of rockmaterials process following the colored arrowed pathway. The rock material in theOceanic crust can follow any of the arrows from one phase to another.Magma rises from a depth and forms new igneous rock in to the lithosphere. The oldlithosphere decends again in the mantle where it is back in earht’s recyclying system.The view of the rock cycle diagram illustrated the process of the existing rockforced down by motion of the tectonics plates into the earths crust with intense heat andpressure causing continual change from one rock type into another rock type.
