ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Igneous Rock, Sedimentary Rock, Plate Tectonics

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Monika Havelka

Document Summary

Geologic cycles provide the physical foundation to support life on earth: rock cycle: heating, melting, cooling, breaking, reassembling of rocks and minerals - Dominated by surface processes (but driven both internally and externally: tectonic cycle: processes related to the movement of large fragments of lithosphere - Dominated by internal processes (but strongly influential of surface processes and characteristics) Geologic cycles: determine soil chemistry and replenish nutrients, drive formation of mineral resources and fossil fuels. Igneous rock: magma = molten (liquid) rock + gases + crystals, lava = magma that reaches the surface. Intrusive (plutonic) rock, magma cools and crystallizes slowly, well below earth"s surface (e. g. , granite: extrusive (volcanic) rock , magma ejected from a volcano, cools and solidifies quickly (e. g. , basalt) Metamorphic rocks: metamorphic rocks are modified as a result of exposure to great heat and/or pressure, temperature and pressure high enough to reshape crystals, changes their appearance, physical properties, even their chemistry.