minerals and The rock cycle
Rock cycle project |
How Rocks & Minerals are Formed1. THE EARTH'S CRUSTThe whole earth is made of rocks & minerals. Inside the earth there is a liquid core of molten rock and on the outside there is a hard crust. If you compare the earth to an egg, the shell on an egg is like the crust on the earth. The crust is made up of rocks and minerals. Much of the crust is covered by water, sand, soil and ice. If you dig deep enough, you will always hit rocks.Below the loose layer of soil, sand & crumbled rocks found on Earth is bedrock, which is a solid rock.
2. ROCKS, MINERALS, CRYSTALS, GEMS, SOIL, SAND & DIRTROCKSAll rocks are made of minerals. The rocks you see around you - the mountains, canyons & riverbeds, are all made of minerals. A rock is made up of 2 or more minerals. Think of a chocolate chip cookie as a rock. The cookie is made of flour, butter, sugar & chocolate. The cookie is like a rock and the flour, butter, sugar & chocolate are like minerals. MINERALSA mineral is composed of the same substance throughout. If you were to cut a mineral sample, it would look the same throughout. There are about 3000 different minerals in the world. Minerals are made of chemicals - either a single chemical or a combination of chemicals. There are 103 known chemical elements. Minerals are sorted into 8 groups.
CRYSTALS
GEMSTONES
SOIL, SAND & DIRT
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