Earth’s Rocks and the Rock Cycle

macOS / Education

Explore the three types of rock found on Earth and understand the geologic processes that create and transform them. View high resolution photos of rocks and explore the environments in which they are found. Use what you have learned about composition, texture, and color to identify rocks. Animations show the geologic processes in action: volcanic eruptions, flowing lava, weathering of rocks, streams transporting sediment, glaciers moving, caverns being formed by water, rocks being deformed by intense heat and pressure deep underground.

Learn how the rock cycle illustrates the geologic processes as they change one type of rock into another. Investigate how the hydrologic cycle interacts with the rock cycle. In the Rock Builder activity, use what you learned about the rock cycle to build new rocks from existing ones.

Features of this app include:
•photos and animations by Dennis Tasa, with additional photos by Michael Collier and Ed Tarbuck;
•enlarge high resolution photos of rocks and their environments;
•toolbar menu with audio controls, access to a glossary, and the table of contents;
•a thumbnail gallery for easy navigation;
•narration that can be turned off/on;
•interactive quizzes that are scored and optional essay questions that are not;
•quiz results that can be copied, printed, or shared.
•a total score for all quizzes.

Table of Contents:
•The Rocks
⁃Igneous Rocks
⁃Sedimentary Rocks
⁃Metamorphic Rocks
•The Processes
⁃Cooling and Crystallization
⁃Weathering
⁃Lithification
⁃Metamorphism
⁃Melting
•The Rock Cycle

Grade levels: 7-13.

Correlates to Next Generation Science Standards:
ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems
ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions
ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes

Supports Common Core Literacy in Science Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.1,2,4,5,9
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.1,2,4,5,9
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.1,2,4,5,9