The Rock Cycle – Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks
GeographyEarth's Structure & LandformsAges 15–16
Loading…
Sign in to playA cross-section through mountains, a volcano, a river, the sea and a subducting ocean plate. Pick or tap a rock sample and apply one process at a time – weathering, erosion and transport, deposition, compaction and cementation, heat and pressure, melting, slow cooling underground or eruption and fast cooling, uplift – and watch it travel through the landscape and turn into granite, basalt, sandstone, limestone, shale, marble, quartzite, slate and more. A magnifier shows crystal size and texture, and a timeline shows how long each step takes.
Lesson: Earth's crust and the materials it is made of: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks; the rock cycle
What it shows
Rocks are constantly recycled. Magma that cools slowly deep underground grows large crystals (granite, gabbro), while lava that cools fast at the surface has tiny crystals (rhyolite, basalt). Weathering and erosion break rocks into sand, mud and dissolved minerals, which rivers carry to the sea; buried layers are compacted and cemented into sandstone, shale and limestone. Heat and pressure deep in mountain roots turn rocks into quartzite, slate, schist, gneiss and marble, and deeper still they melt back into magma. Each step takes from days to many millions of years.
How to use
Choose a Starting sample or tap a rock on the picture, then press the process buttons; faded buttons cannot act where the sample is now. Watch the magnifier for crystal size and follow the journey log and the timeline. Switch Magma type to compare granite with rhyolite and gabbro with basalt. Press Auto to let the sample wander through the cycle, and Reset to start again.
Parameters you can change
- Starting rock sample Granite (mountains), Basalt (volcano slope), Magma (magma chamber), Sandstone (coast), Shale (under the sea floor), Limestone (under the sea floor)
- Magma type Silica-rich (granite / rhyolite), Silica-poor (gabbro / basalt)
- Animation speed 0.5–3 ×
- Show labels on the picture
Questions to explore
- Why does granite have large crystals while basalt has very small ones?
- Which processes are needed to turn limestone into marble?
- Which process in the rock cycle is fastest, and which is slowest?
