SUMMARY OF LECTURE 3

Revised January 17

Rocks
Rocks are naturally-occurring aggregates of minerals (and by definition glass
and coal)
They are generally classified by:
o how they formed
chemical composition
texture (grain or crystal size)
Texture and composition can tell us a lot about the history of the rock

Igneous Rocks
Formed from the cooling of molten rock (magma) either on or below the surface
of the Earth. As the magma cools, interlocking crystals form.
Magmas form (rocks melt) if one or more of the following occurs:
o Increase temperature past melting point of specific minerals
Usually by bringing hotter material (or magma) up into cooler areas
Melting of only some minerals is called partial melting
o Decrease pressure
Decompression by rising hot mantle rock (plumes)
Decompression beneath rifts and mid-ocean ridges
o Add volatiles (especially water)
In particular water is brought to depth in the process of subduction
Magma forms at relatively shallow depths
Bowens reaction series
o Determined experimentally in the 1920s by Norman L. Bowen (1887-1956)
and shows how minerals form during cooling of a magma
o Also indicates stability of a mineral (top less stable at surface, not in
equilibrium with its surroundings)
 As they cool, the minerals can react with the remaining melt and
change into new minerals
o Differentiation
Processes by which different rocks form from one magma
(magmatic differentiation); also processes by which planets develop
radially different chemical and mineralogical layers (planetary
differentiation)
As magma cools, some minerals that crystallize early will sink to
the bottom and be removed from the magma
The remaining magma will cool into the next stable mineral
By this and other means (left) the composition of the magmas (and
the resulting igneous rocks) change
Classification of igneous rocks
o Texture (crystal size)
Rocks which cooled rapidly generally do so on the Earths surface
(or in contact with water); they have very small crystals (aphanitic):
they are extrusive. Crystals do not have time to grow. If the
magma is quenched, no crystals grow and you have a glass.
Rocks which have time to cool generally did so within the earth and
have crystals visible to the naked eye (phaneritic): they are
intrusive. Crystals have time to grow.
o Composition (minerals)

o More mafic rocks are more common on oceanic crust, more felsic rocks
on continental crust.
o Mafic rocks tend to be stronger than felsic ones.
Some igneous rocks (see above graph)
 o Granite (continental crust)
in the construction trade, the term granite is used to refer to pretty
much any igneous or metamorphic rock
o Diorite
o Gabbro (oceanic crust)
o Peridotite (mantle)
o Rhyolite (continental hot spot volcanoes)
o Andesite (island arc volcanoes)
o Basalt (mid-ocean ridges, oceanic hot spots)
o Obsidian (glass)

Sedimentary Rocks
Formed from rock or fossil fragments or precipitate from solution
Grains not interlocking (they are fragments)
Classification
o Clastic (formed of fragments of other rocks)
classified by grain size (conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, shale)
Formation involves multiple processes
Erosion (breakdown and removal of pre-existing rocks)
Transportation (move the material)
Deposition (put it somewhere) by wind and water
Lithification (turn it into rock)
o Compaction
o Cementation
Evolution of sediments with time and transport
grains become smaller
increased sorting (grains become of a similar size)
grains become more rounded
sediment becomes more mature (less stable minerals
weather, most resistant (e.g., silica) remain.
Some clastic sedimentary rocks
conglomerate (composed of gravel or pebbles; mountains),
sandstone (beaches), shale (deep marine, lagoons)
o Chemical sedimentary rocks
precipitate out of solution (carbonates form limestone; dolomite in
lagoons, evaporates from drying out of old lakes, etc.)
fossils and fragments of fossils
Features in sedimentary rocks (how did they form)
o Bedding: Beds are the smallest well-defined planar element in a
sedimentary layer. Since sediments are deposited in horizontal layers,
these layers (bedding) represent paleo-horizontal. Collections of beds are
called strata and collections of strata are called formations (which
implies a change in composition of the dominant rocks).
o Cross-beds: Created by prograding (advancing) dunes or similar sub-
aqueous processes involving flow. Also called foreset beds. These can
 tell us wind/current direction as well as being an up-indicator (which way
was up when the rocks were deposited).
Tangential foresets indicate that the side where the foresets are
cut off is up and the side where they are tangential is down.
Often found in deltas, rivers (fluvial), and alluvial fans
o Graded bedding indicates decreasing flow velocity. Heavier fragments
settle out first, finer grains settle out later. Commonly associated with
turbidity currents (turbidite flows) on continental margins or other
submarine topographic scarps. Good up-indicator.
o Ripple marks are formed by current possible up-indicator, good
bedding indicator
o Mudcracks: indicate areas that have dried out at times
o Scour and load features: indicate erosion and deposition on soft
sediment and unequal settling up indicator. Sometimes results in
dewatering features (e.g., sand geysers)
Sedimentary rocks can form in a diversity of environments from sub-aqueous
(below water) to terrestrial (on land), lacustrine (lakes), fluvial (rivers), marine
(open ocean), etc.