Rock Cycle Vocabulary

Rock

• a mixture of one or more minerals, volcanic glass, organic matter, or other

materials

Sedimentary Rock

• forms when sediments are compacted and cemented together or when minerals

are left behind by evaporation

Examples

Metamorphic Rock

• forms when heat and pressure act on igneous, metamorphic

or sedimentary rock and change its form or make up.

Examples

Igneous Rock

• intrusive or extrusive rock formed when hot magma cools

and hardens

Examples

Rock Cycle

• model that describes how rocks slowly change from one form to another through time

Example

Sediments

• loose materials such as rock fragments, dirt, silt, and sand

Magma

• hot, melted rock material beneath the Earth’s surface

Weathering

• surface process that breaks rocks into smaller pieces

(wind, rain, temperature, etc)

Erosion

• process in which surface materials (sediments) are worn

away and transported from one place to another by water,

wind, and glaciers

Deposition

• The process of eroded materials being moved and deposited in another place.

Cementation

• sedimentary rock-forming process in which large

sediments are held together by natural cements (matrix) like

evaporated mud

Compaction

• process that forms sedimentary rocks when layers

of small sediments are compressed by the weight of

the layers above