Skip to main content

Week 1: Building stone

Completion requirements
View all sections of the document

This diagram shows the various processes that form the rock cycle. The typical sorts of terrain involved in these processes are seen in a cross-section diagram of earth. At the top there are mountains with rainclouds above them, and a blue arrow indicating ‘weathering and erosion’, leading downhill to ‘transportation’, ‘deposition’. This leads to a sea bed where the deposition of sediments causes ‘burial and compaction’ (green arrow). This leads to sedimentary rock. Beneath this are green arrows labelled ‘subsidence’ and ‘metamorphism’, ‘heating and compression’, leading to metamorphic rock. Both sedimentary and metamorphic rock also follow orange arrows that lead back up to the surface, labelled ‘uplift’. And from here, the green arrow ‘subsidence and burial’ leads back down to metamorphic rock. From metamorphic rock, the green arrow ‘melting’ leads to underground magma. This is the deepest section displayed on this diagram. Along the bottom are ‘magma from depth’ and ‘heat from depth’, with short red arrows that point upwards. A red arrow in the magma, also marked ‘melting’ leads back up, where it's then labelled ‘magma rises’, and here the magma branches off. The first branch continues with ‘magma rises’ as it leads to a volcano. At this point ‘magma erupts’ and leads to extrusive igneous rock. The second branch is labelled ‘crystallisation and intrusion’ and leads to intrusive igneous rock.