Igneous Rock Is One of the Three Essay

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Igneous rock is one of the three main types of rock formations making up the earth's crust. It is formed primarily through the cooling and subsequent solidification of magma or lava. Igneous rock may also form without any crystallization -- below the surface as intrusive rocks or above as extrusive. It is best to think of igneous rock as being formed with heat -- one or more of three processes: temperature increases, decreases in pressure, or changes in composition. There are a number of types of igneous rocks; at least 700 have been cataloged, with most being formed deep within the earth's crust.

To describe the events that take place to move igneous rock from deep within the earth's core to the surface requires an understanding of the rock cycle. This is a concept that describes how rocks move and evolve into other types of rock or onto the surface through natural processes. These processes include plate tectonics, the water cycle, weathering, and erosion. For instance, because of the heat and pressure of the earth, rocks under the surface are often pushed into magma, and igneous rock when cooled. Cooling sometimes releases gas, which tends to push the rocks upward. As rocks are exposed to high temperatures and pressures, they can be changed physically and chemically into metamorphic rock, and then when pushed into the atmosphere through weathering and erosion become sedimentary.

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Uplifting of these rocks from deep under the surface accelerates the process and pushes the rock into the atmosphere, where cold, ice, rain, and the heat from the sun contributes to weathering.

3. Plate tectonics describe the large-scale massive motions of the Earth's outermost shell, the lithosphere. This crust is broken up into plates which, on earth; there are 7-8 major plates. Where the plates meet, their motion determines the type of boundary: convergent, divergent, or transformatory. Most of the major geologic events we know of occur at the juncture of those plates: earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain-building, and ocean trench formation. These plates are composed of different rocks, and are able to move because the crust has a higher strength and lower density that that of the underlying atmosphere. Movement results from a combination of gravity, motion from the sea floor, and the rotation of the globe and tidal forces.

Collisional plates happen when two continental plates form, often pushing up rock from beneath the surface and combining types; igneous and metamorphic for one, since….....

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