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The premise that the processes affecting the earth today are the same as in the past is the basis for determining how sedimentary features in the rock record were formed. By comparing similar features today to features in the rock record—for example, by comparing modern sand dunes to dunes preserved in ancient aeolian sandstones—geologists ...
Igneous rock – Rock formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava; Metamorphic rock – Rock that was subjected to heat and pressure; Sedimentary rock – Rock formed by the deposition and cementation of particles; Structural geology – Science of the description and interpretation of deformation in the Earth's crust
Sedimentary rocks are formed through the gradual accumulation of sediments: for example, sand on a beach or mud on a river bed. As the sediments are buried they get compacted as more and more material is deposited on top. Eventually the sediments will become so dense that they would essentially form a rock. This process is known as lithification.
This diamond is a mineral from within an igneous or metamorphic rock that formed at high temperature and pressure. The rock cycle is a basic concept in geology that describes transitions through geologic time among the three main rock types: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. Each rock type is altered when it is forced out of its ...
Metamorphic rocks are formed by subjecting any rock type—sedimentary rock, igneous rock or another older metamorphic rock—to different temperature and pressure conditions than those in which the original rock was formed. This process is called metamorphism, meaning to "change in form". The result is a profound change in physical properties ...
Sedimentary structures include all kinds of features in sediments and sedimentary rocks, formed at the time of deposition. Sediments and sedimentary rocks are characterized by bedding , which occurs when layers of sediment, with different particle sizes are deposited on top of each other. [ 1 ]
Instead of water, some mid-eighteenth-century naturalists such as Buffon had suggested that strata had been formed through heat (or fire). The thesis was modified and expanded by the Scottish naturalist James Hutton during the 1780s. He argued against the theory of Neptunism, proposing instead the theory of based on heat.
Plutonism is the geologic theory that the igneous rocks forming the Earth originated from intrusive magmatic activity, with a continuing gradual process of weathering and erosion wearing away rocks, which were then deposited on the sea bed, re-formed into layers of sedimentary rock by heat and pressure, and raised again.