Grace: Hi, I’m Grace Ribolzi
Madi: And I’m Madi Whitlock
Grace: Our driving question for this project was What if the rock cycle never happened and changed rocks over time?
Madi: Well, Grace, that’s quite the question.
Grace: Yeah. You wrote it.
Madi: I know.
Grace: (sighs) The rock cycle is an important part of geology. It is centered around magma, which cools into igneous rock, which, if pressure and heat is added to it, it creates metamorphic rock. If the igneous rock erodes and is deposited in riverbeds, sedimentary rock will form. Sedimentary rock will also form if metamorphic rock erodes and is deposited in riverbeds. Metamorphic and sedimentary rock, when melted, returns to magma and the cycle starts all over again Madi. MADI.
Madi: Oh. Right. The first thing I asked myself was where did all of this come from? Well, James Hutton is considered to be the founder of modern geology and the rock cycle is traced back to him. He was a Scottish farmer. He made very well thought out arguments about the rock cycle, which is why I like him. (hint hint, wink wink). Hutton retired when he was 42 so that he could spend more time studying geology
Grace: The rock cycle is directly linked to weathering and erosion through the creation of sedimentary rock. As I said earlier, sedimentary rock forms when igneous or metamorphic rock erodes and turns into sediment, and through pressure, eventually becomes sedimentary rock.. We have already learned about sedimentary rock in class, however, we thought a refresher might be good.
Madi: What about our modern landscape, such as caves and the shoreline? Are those affected?
Grace: Yes, yes they are. Some caves are made by weathering, and the shoreline erodes because the waves are constantly sweeping against it, in and out and in and out.
Madi: Wait, what’s erosion? Isn’t that where things blow up?
Grace: (sighs again) No, Madi. That’s explosion.
Madi: (puff of air) I thought we were going to blow something up and actually make this interesting.
Grace: Erosion is the displacement of solids through movement. There are four types-
Madi: Water, wind, and what else?
Grace: Ice and gravity are the two other types of erosion. Water expands as it freezes, so the ice pushes apart the rock and breaks it. Take a guess at how gravity affects it.
Madi: Well, gravity pulls things down to earth, so it probably pulls the rocks down to Earth as well.
Grace: Close enough. Typically the rocks run down a sloped area.. Then, they crack into pieces after smashing at the bottom of a gorge!
Madi: So, lately I’ve been doing this new thing called PAYING ATTENTION during science class, and we’ve been talking about glaciers eroding the Earth as well. Is all of this stuff true?
Grace: yes, yes it is.
Madi: Okay, well, for those of you who weren’t paying attention, glaciers do cause erosion. The glacier picks up debris as it moves and deposits it along the way.
Grace: We learned this when we did the lab with the *cough cough brown sugar cough cough* oh I mean sand, and the ice cube.
Grace: In conclusion, our question was not answered through research. However, a rational guess as to the answer to the question What if the rock cycle never happened and changed rocks over time? is probably something like the magma wouldn’t cool, so there would perpetually be a great big molten pool of lava underneath the ground- or, wait! above the ground and we would all be dead! So the rock cycle is possibly necessary to the survival of all life on Earth. Again, this isn’t something we learned through our research, this is my partially rational guess
Madi: Ahh. Well, I’d like to end us with this: Igneous is bliss.
