EARTH MATERIALS

AND PROCESSES
Objectives
1. Identify common rock-forming minerals using their physical and
chemical properties;
2. Classify rocks into igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic;
3. Identify the minerals' importance to society, and;
4. Describe how ore minerals are found, mined, and processed for
human use.
EARTH MATERIALS
• This include minerals, rocks, soil and water.
• These are naturally occurring inorganic materials that are important
because they provide the basic components for life, agriculture,
industry and other activities.
MINERALS AND ROCKS
MINERALS
Minerals are the building blocks of rocks.

It is an inorganic, naturally occurring, crystalline substance represented

by specific formula with distinctive chemical and physical properties,
composition and atomic structure.
✓Inorganic compound
✓With orderly internal structure or crustal structure
✓Specific or definite chemical composition
✓Crystal habit ≈ can grow into different geometric shapes
✓Stable at room temperature
✓Homogeneous solids
MINERALS
• Have geometric forms visible to the
unaided eye
• Consisting of smooth surfaces and sharp
edges.
• Shape of crystal follows a mineral’s
molecular structure.
• For example: “halite” – mineral used as
table salt is a crystal that adapts a cubic
form.
Quartz, calcite, fluorite, talc, topaz and diamond are just a few other examples
of the more than 2000 known minerals.

Rock forming minerals: Accessory minerals provide valuable

✓ Feldspar information into rock’s geological age &
✓ Quartz history.
✓ Zircon
✓ Amphiboles
✓ Monazite
✓ Micas ✓ Apatite
✓ Olivine ✓ Titanite Accessory minerals
✓ Calcite ✓ Tourmaline commonly contain high
✓ Pyroxenes ✓ Pyrite concentrations of
radioactive elements!
IDENTIFYING MINERALS
Although color might seem to be quickest way to identify a
mineral, it is not reliable.
Many different minerals have similar colors. Some minerals,
even though they have the same chemical composition, can
have different colors. Quartz, for example, can be colorless like
glass, or may be pink, violet, brown, black, yellow, white or
green.
Identification of minerals is based
on their physical characteristics:
• Hardness
• Color
• Luster
• Cleavage – how mineral tends to
break along preferred plane;
determined by molecular
structure
• Fracture – irregular breaks not
along the preferred planes
The hardness of mineral can
be determined by trying to
scratch one mineral. The hard
mineral leaves a scratch on
the softer mineral.
It can be measured using
Friedrich Mohs’ scale of
hardness.
The luster of a mineral describes the way that it reflects light or its
shininess.
Composition of minerals have the same
elements found in Earth’s crust!
• Oxygen (O) – 46.60% abundance Oxygen and Silicon frequently
• Silicon (Si) – 27.71% abundance combine to form “Silica” (SiO2)
• Aluminum (Al)
• Iron (Fe)
• Magnesium (Mg)
• Calcium (Ca)
• Sodium (Na)
• Potassium (K)
Most common mineral groups form and are dependent
on the composition of its parent material.
• Silicates (92% abundance out of all groups)
• Magma rich silicon form Silicates:
• Feldspar
• Quartz
• Oxides
• Carbonates – from Carbon (C)
• Most common is Calcite (CaCO3) which is relatively soft
• Iron (Fe) and Magnesium (Mg) forms
• Olivine
• Pyroxene
ROCKS
Rocks are generally made up of 2 or more
minerals, mixed up through geological
processes.

Rocks are consolidated aggregate of various

types of minerals and it can be also consolidated
aggregate of multiple individual pieces (grains)
of the same kind of mineral.

Rock is not one single uniform crystal.

 ROCKS

A mass of consolidated rock that has

not been weathered, weather exposed
at the surface or buried, is termed
bedrock.

What if they got exposed to the

surface?
Then they will form what is called as
rock outcrops. Masses of solid rock that
are exposed or “crop out” at the
surface.
 3 TYPES OF ROCKS
Each of these rocks are formed by physical changes—such as melting,
cooling, eroding, compacting, or deforming—that are part of the rock
cycle.

Types of Rocks are:

1. Igneous Rock
2. Sedimentary Rock
3. Metamorphic Rock
 IGNEOUS ROCK
Igneous Rocks from the Greek work meaning “fire”, are
form when hot molten rocks crystallizes and solidifies
• Molten rock mater below Earth’s surface is called
magma.
• Molten rock material at surface is known as lava.

They are mostly crystalline (made up of interlocking

crystals) and usually very hard to break).
2 TYPES OF IGNEOUS
ROCKS

Extrusive Igneous Rocks

Intrusive Igneous Rocks

EXTRUSIVE IGNEOUS ROCKS
(Volcanic rock)
These are formed from lava that
cools and solidifies at or near the
earth’s surface.

The appearance of all extrusive

igneous rocks depends on 2 major
factors:
a.) How rapidly the lava or magma
cools.
b.) The substances it contains.
Pumice is a pale color rock. It is very light because it is full of holes.
Pumice float on water and sometimes washes up on beaches. Powdered
pumice is used in some abrasive cleaning products.
Scoria is heavier than pumice, and darker because it contains more iron.
It is usually found closer to the volcano’s crater than pumice. Scoria is a
reddish-brown or grey rock that can be crushed and used in garden
paths or as a drainage material around pipes.
Basalt is a rock that can take on many appearances. One big
difference between samples of basalt is the size of the crystals
that make up the rock. For example, basalt formed from lava
cooling in cooling in cold ocean water has much smaller crystals
than basalt formed by lava cooling on the ground.
Obsidian is a smooth , black rock that looks like glass. It is
formed when lave cools almost instantly. This rock is different
from basalt because it cooled so quickly that no crystals formed.
INTRUSIVE IGNEOUS ROCKS
(Plutonic rock)
Formed from magma that cools and
solidifies deep beneath the earth’s
surface.
The insulating effect of the surrounding
rocks allows the magma to solidify very
slowly. Slow cooling means the individual
mineral grains have a long time to grow, so
they grow to a relatively large size.

Intrusive rocks have a characteristically

coarse grain size. Large bodies of intrusive
rock are called batholiths.
Granite is a common intrusive rock. The crystals in granite from
over long periods of time and grow large enough to be easy to
see with the naked eye. Granite is very hard and can be used for
building.
 SEDIMENTARY ROCK
Sedimentary Rocks are formed from sediment grains
deposited by water, wind or ice (due to weathering).
• Derived from sediment of unconsolidated
fragments that have accumulated together in a
loose collection
• Process of compaction and cementation— “lithify”
into solid coherent layers of rock (to change to
stone).
• They are always formed in layers, called “beds” or
“strata”, and quite often contain fossils.
Sedimentary rocks are formed
from the particles of sediments
deposited when weathered
rock is moved from one place to
another by the wind, running
water, or glaciers.
 3 MAJOR CATEGORIES OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
1. Clasts – broken fragments of solids 3. Chemical precipitate sedimentary rocks
• Clay – lithified amounts of dissolved minerals
• Silt in ocean or lake water reach saturation
• Sand they begin to precipitate and build up as
• Gravel a deposit on the sea or lake bottom.
• Conglomerate • Dolomite
• Breccia • Gypsum
• Sandstones • Halite
• Siltstone • Borates
• Shale

2. Organic sedimentary rocks – lithify from

remains of organisms
• Coal
• Limestone
Conglomerate lithified mass of cemented roughly rounded
pebbles, cobbles and boulders. May have clay, silt, sand filling.

Breccia is somewhat similar to Conglomerate but angular.

Sandstone is formed from grains of sand that have been
cemented together over a period of time. Granular (visible
grans), porous and resistant to weathering.
Mudstone and shale are formed finer grains of sediment
deposited by calm water in the form of mud and clay.
• Clay
• Thinly layered
• Smooth surface
• Low permeability
• Easily cracked, broken apart and
eroded
Siltstone has grains slightly larger that those of mudstone.
Individual grains are composed of silt-sized particles that
are not visible with unaided eye.
Rocks from Living Things
Limestone Coal
Is a sedimentary rock that formed Is formed from the remains of dead
from deposits of the remains of sea plants that are buried by other
organisms such as shellfish and sediments. In dense forests, layers
corals. Hard part of these dead of dead trees and other plants
animals contains calcium build up on the forest floor.
carbonate.
 METAMORPHIC ROCK
Metamorphic Rocks (“changed form”) were once igneous or
sedimentary rocks, but have been changed
(metamorphosed) as a result of intense heat and/or pressure
within the Earth’s crust.

Enormous heat and pressure deep in Earth’s crust can

alter/metamorphose an existing rock into a new rock type
that is completely different from the original by
recrystallizing the minerals without creating molten rock
matter. It creates a more stable characteristic at higher
temperature and pressure.
 METAMORPHIC ROCK
• Typically harder and more compact.
• Reoriented crystalline structure.
• More resistant to weathering.
• Perpendicular to applied stress forming platy (plate)
flat surfaces or wavy bands known as “foliation”.

Pre-existing rocks composed of one dominant mineral

do not develop foliation.
 TYPES OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS
1. Foliated metamorphic rock – crystal
texture
• Slate – from Shales; thin foliation (flaky)
• Schist – from fine-grained igneous rocks
• Gneiss – from coarse-grained igneous
rocks e.g. granite; foliation develops
into broad mineral bands; extremely
hard

2. Non-Foliated metamorphic rock

• Marble – from limestone
• Quartzite – from silica-rich sandstones;
immune to chemical weathering and
harder than steel
Marble from limestone under heat and pressure.
Gneiss is formed mainly as a result of great pressure on granite.
ROCK CYCLE
Overtime, many rocks undergo processes of transformation.
 ROCK CYCLE
A rock cycle is a conceptual model for Major events in rock cycle:
understanding processes that generate, 1. Weathering
alter, transport, and deposit mineral
material to produce different kinds of 2. Erosion and transport
rocks. 3. Deposition and sediment
4. Burial and compaction
The term cycle emphasizes that existing 5. Deformation and metamorphism
rocks supply the materials to make new 6. Uplift
and sometimes very different rocks.
7. Melting
8. Crystallization of Magma
Weathering
Weathering is the breakdown
of rocks at the Earth’s surface,
by the action of rainwater,
extremes of temperature, and
biological activity.
TYPES OF WEATHERING

1. Physical Weathering

It is caused by the effects of

changing temperature on
rocks causing the rock to
break apart. The process is
sometimes assisted by water.
2. Chemical Weathering

It is caused by rain water

reacting with the mineral
grains in rocks to form new
minerals and soluble salts.
These reactions occur
particularly when the water
is slightly acidic.
3. Biological Weathering
Caused by the activities of living
organisms.

Trees put down roots through joints

or cracks in the rock in order to find
moisture. As the tree grows, the
roots gradually prize the rock apart.

Even the tiniest bacteria, algae and

lichens produce chemicals that help
break down the rock on which they
live, so they can get the nutrients
they need.
EROSION AND TRANSPORT
Erosion
The process by which soil and rock particles are worn away and moved
elsewhere by gravity, or by a moving transport agent (wind, water or
ice).

Transport
The processes by which the sediment is moved along, for example,
pebbles rolled along a river-bed or sea shore, sand grains whipped up
by the wind, salts carried in solution.
DEFORMATION AND METAMORPHISM
Deformation
Describes the processes by which rocks are folded and faulted.

Metamorphism
The process where rocks are altered due to pressure and/or heat,
changing their appearance entirely.
Uplift – the Key to the Rock Cycle
Understanding the idea of Uplift is the key to making
sense of the rock cycle, as it allows us to see rocks that were
once deeply buried beneath the surface.

If rocks did not get uplifted to form hills and mountains,

then the processes of weathering and erosion would long ago
have reduced much of the world’s land-masses to low-lying,
flat plains. Weathering and erosions, transport and deposition
would all effectively stop.
Melting results to molten rocks.
ex. Volcanic eruption. Magma come out as the lava.
• Rock matter doesn’t have to go through every step of the full rock cycle.
For example: After igneous rocks are created by the cooling and crystallizing of
magma or lava, they can weather into fragments that lithify into sedimentary rocks.

• Igneous rocks, however, could also be remelted and crystallized to make new igneous
rocks, or they could be changed into metamorphic rocks by heat and pressure.

• Sedimentary rocks consist of particles derived from any of the three basic rock types.

• Metamorphic rocks are created by means of heat and pressure changing any pre-
existing rock—igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic—into a new rock type.

• In addition, with sufficient heat, any rock can melt completely into magma that will
eventually cool and solidify into an igneous rock.

• The rock cycle encompasses all the possible pathways for the recycling of rock matter
over time.
SUMMARY OF THE ROCK CYCLE PROCESSES