Rocks and Minerals

The Top Ten Things I Learned from the Earth Unit!

1. There are constructive and Destructive forces that shape the earth.

2. Seismic waves travel through the earth, away from the focus, and tell about what’s inside.

3. The lithosphere is made up of broken plates (pieces) that shift and move causing deformation on the crust.

4. Convergent, Divergent and transform boundaries cause Compression, tension and shearing stress.

5. Earthquakes are the trembling and shaking of earth’s layers. This usually occurs where plate boundaries are located.

6. Volcanoes are weak spots in earth’s crust created by convergent-subduction zones, divergent boundaries, or hotspots.

7. Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic solids that have crystal structure and have definite chemical composition.

8. All rocks are made up of a mixture of minerals and other substances. The three formations of rock are igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.

9. The rock cycle is a set of processes that change a rock from one type to another. Rock is neither created or destroyed it just changes form.

10. All rock under-go a process of weathering and erosion that wear down rock. It is caused by gravity and helps to push the rock cycle along.

Volcanoes

Volcanoes are like sleeping giants.  After years - even - centuries-of rest, they awake.  They erupt.  Some powerful eruptions blow tops off mountains, flatten forests, and dam up rivers.  Some eruptions have killed tens of thousands of people.  A few have have buried cities, while others have buried mountains.  Some big eruptions have even changed the world's weather for years.

Volcanoes also shape the earth.  They build islands, mountains, plains, lakes, and the ocean floor.

Despite the dangers of active volcanoes, people often liver near them.  Farmers like the soil volcanoes create.  Some of our favorite foods - like chocolate- come from plants that grow best in volcanic soil.  Volcanoes also contain valuable ores and metals like the silver dentists use for fillings in our teeth.

Come discover volcanoes from the inside out-on land, under seas, and in outer space.
(Kids Dscover- Volcanoes: Pg. 2 Copyright 1999)