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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 equilibrium conditions.
Original - The rock cycle is a fundamental concept in geology that describes the dynamic transitions through geologic time among the three main rock types: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. Due to the driving forces of the rock cycle, plate tectonics and the water cycle , rocks do not remain in equilibrium and are forced to change as they ...
In metamorphic geology, a compatibility diagram shows how the mineral assemblage of a metamorphic rock in thermodynamic equilibrium varies with composition at a fixed temperature and pressure. Compatibility diagrams provide an excellent way to analyze how variations in the rock's composition affect the mineral paragenesis that develops in a ...
Minerals bond grains of sediment together by growing around them. This process is called cementation and is a part of the rock cycle. Cementation involves ions carried in groundwater chemically precipitating to form new crystalline material between sedimentary grains. The new pore-filling minerals form "bridges" between original sediment grains ...
The carbonate-silicate cycle is the primary control on carbon dioxide levels over long timescales. [3] It can be seen as a branch of the carbon cycle, which also includes the organic carbon cycle, in which biological processes convert carbon dioxide and water into organic matter and oxygen via photosynthesis. [5]
This cycle is most likely caused by the break-up and formation of super-continents. The earth went through major climatic swings over the course of 200 to 400 million years. From the late Pre-Cambrian to the late Cambrian , late Devonian to the Triassic - Jurassic border, and since the Miocene until the present time, the earth was an "icehouse ...
Rock can also form in the absence of a substantial pressure gradient as material that condensed from a protoplanetary disk, without ever undergoing any transformations in the interior of a large object such as a planet or moon. Astrophysicists classify this as a fourth type of rock: primitive rock. This type is common in asteroids and meteorites.
The geologic time scale, proportionally represented as a log-spiral with some major events in Earth's history. A megaannus (Ma) represents one million (10 6) years.. The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth.