Rocks that are formed from cooled magma that are often very hard or full of small holes (porous). They have minerals in the form of crystals.

A rock that has gone through a transformation by heat, pressure, or other processes. It is then a new type of rock that usually has bands and swirls in it.

Earth’s recycling process where igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks change into and form one another.

The breaking down or dissolving of rocks and minerals on Earth’s surface.

The process by which soil and rock particles are worn away and moved elsewhere by gravity, or by a moving transport agent – wind, water or ice.

The laying down of small rocks and soil carried by wind, water, or ice.

As layers are piled one upon another, sometimes by hundreds of meters of sediment above. The weight of these layers are squash down the sediment grains.

Minerals grow and solidify in magma or lava. The growth is a highly organized three-dimensional structure that is repeated.

The processes that turn any rock into magma and then later, under the right conditions, solidify the magma back into rock.

When forces act to pull apart Earth’s crust, the movement can cause rocks that were once underground to be brought to the Earth's surface.

A process where rocks are folded and develop cracks.