Download Rocks and Minerals Study Guide

Rocks and Minerals Study Guide
Chapter 1

All minerals have six properties. They are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
color
luster
hardness
streak
cleavage
heaviness
There are 3 classes of rock:
 sedimentary rocks (form in layers of material deposited (or dropped) by winds,
rivers, and other forces)
 igneous rocks (form when molten magma/lava cools)
 metamorphic rocks( form when other forms of rock are buried deep
underground and change because of heat and pressure)
Chapter 2
Minerals are called the “building blocks” of rocks because every kind of rock on Earth
is made from minerals.
Granite is an igneous rock that forms the bedrock of Earth’s continents.
Igneous rocks are classified as extrusive or intrusive because of where they are formed.
Extrusive rocks form above Earth’s crust and intrusive igneous rocks form within and
below Earth’s crust.
The law of superposition is that the lower levels of undisturbed sedimentary rocks are
always the oldest.
Chapters 3 and 4

You are a scientist studying the history of plant and animal life on a newly
discovered island. What class of rock will provide you with the most information
and why? Sedimentary rocks are most helpful to scientist because they
contain fossils and impressions of plant and animal life from long ago.

Scientists cannot observe metamorphic rocks being formed because they form
far beneath the Earth’s surface over millions of years.

The fabulous Hope Diamond began as a carbon-rich mineral deposit. The process
of metamorphism is responsible for changing it into a diamond.

There are 3 different forces on Earth’s surface that can cause rocks to change:
1. weathering
2. erosion
3. deposition
weathering
erosion
deposition
The effects of these processes on Earth’s surface:
Wind and water cause land features to change. They wear rocks down, carry particles
away, and deposit them in other places. These actions change Earth’s surface.