| A | B |
|---|
| Magma | Hot liquid rock beneath the earth's surface. |
| Minerals | Naturally occuring substances formed in the earth. Can be thought of as the ingredients of rocks. Flour is to a cookie as _________ are to rocks. |
| Crystal | A solid formed from a repeating pattern of atoms. |
| Crystalline | A rock composed of crytals that have grown together. Also known as a ______________matrix. |
| Texture | The "internal" pattern of shapes and colors within a rock. |
| Petrologist | Scientist who studies rocks, and their mineral composition |
| Igneous Rock | A rock formed by the cooling and hardening of magma, (or lava). |
| Sediment | Small (usually broken) pieces of rock, shells, or remains of plants and animals that have been carried along and deposited by wind, water and ice. |
| Sedimentary Rock | A rock formed from sediments that have been compacted (pressed together) and cemented into rock. Also includes evaporites like rock salt. |
| Metamorphic Rock | A rock formed when sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic rocks are changed due to heat, pressure, or chemical reactons. |
| Rock Cycle | A complex re-cycling of "rock" meterial. |
| Intrusive Rock | A type of igneous rock formed below the surface of the earth; inside the earth. a.k.a. plutonic igneous rocks |
| Extrusive Rock | A type of igneous rock formed from lava at the earth's surface; exits the crust. a.k.a. vulcanic igneous rock |
| Compaction | A process by which layers of sediments are pressed together to form sedimentary rocks. |
| Cementation | A process by which sediments are cemented together by minerals dissolved in water to form sedimentary rocks. |
| Phaneritic | A rock texture usually associated with intrusive igneous rocks like granite. |
| Aphanitic | A rock texture usually associated with extrusive igneous rocks like basalt. |
| Glassy | Technically, a non-crystalline rock texture type associated with extrusive igneous rocks like obsidian. |
| Foliated | A rock texture term; usually refers to lines or layers. An example of a rock that shows this is gneiss. |
| Schistose | A metemorphic rock texture. These often contain mica, and/or graphite. |
| Gneissic | A foliated rock texture like gneiss. |
| Shale | A fine grained clastic sedimentary rock. |
| Coquina | An organic sedimentary rock made of broken up sea shells. |
| Pyroclastic | A type of combination between igneous and sedimentary rocks; wherein it is a rock made of volcanic "ash" sediments. |
| Sandstone | A medium grained clastic sedimentary rock. |
| Conglomerate | A clastic sedimentary rock containing all different sizes of sediments. |
| Vessicles | Holes created when air or gasses were trapped in igneous rocks as they cooled. Mostly volcanic rocks have these. |
| Graded Bedding | When the action of water lays down sediments in order from largest to smallest as a stream dries up over time. Tells you about the history of the stream. |
| Phenocrysts | Chocolate chip like crystals within an otherwise smooth grained Porphyritic rock. |
| Groundmass | The cookie-like part of a Porphyritic rock. |
| Porphyritic | A chocolate chip cookie-like rock that has bigger crystals within a fine grained groundmass. |
| Pegmatitic | A coarse bumpy igneous rock. The crytals are big and "chunky" and easy to see. It indicates that the rock had a long time to cool. |
| The Crystal Size Rule: | The longer time molten materials have to cool, the larger the crystals that form tend to be. |
| Organic | Living, once living, or of living origin. |
| Non-Foliated | A tricky type of crystalline metamorphic rock. An example is Marble. |
| Slaty | A rock texture that is slate-like. |
| Organic Sedimentary | A rock texture defined by the rock being made up of organic sediments. |
| Massive | A word used to describe a crystalline rock that has NO pattern of foliation. |
