Summary

This video covers the three main rock types: metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary. Details about each type of rock are discussed, including what it is made of and how it formed. The video also covers how rocks can tell us about how climate change has shaped the Earth, and how rocks affect Earth every day.

Why watch this video?

1. Have you ever wondered what the relationship is between rocks and minerals?
2. Would you like to know how movement of Earth’s surface happens?
3. Have you ever been confused by why there are so many rocks around the world, and wondered how they all formed?

Key terms

Metamorphic Rocks- Rocks that form at high temperatures and pressures but do not melt.

Igneous Rocks- Rocks that are formed when rocks that have been melted down are cooled off. This can happen on the surface of Earth or within it.

Sedimentary Rocks- Sedimentary rocks form when there is lose material on Earth’s surface. This material is broken down and compacted together to form the rock.

Loose ends

1. When describing metamorphic rocks, the video explains how they form, but leaves out the important fact that high pressures and temperatures cause metamorphism through chemical and physical changes.
2. The video mentions that plate tectonics causes the ground beneath us to be always moving, without really describing what plate tectonics is. Plate tectonics is the study of how plates interact. There can be continent-bearing plates but there can also be ocean-bearing plates. Plates can have continental crust, ocean crust or both.
3. Fossils are brought up briefly to say that they are formed in sedimentary rocks and can show records from the past, but the term fossil is not defined. A fossil is a preservation of an ancient organism and their activities. With the details of the fossil and where they are on the Earth, scientists are able to study different climate changes or extinctions of different animal species.

Self-test questions