Learning Intention

To learn how the three main rock types are formed by the rock cycle and that this is an ever-continuing process occurring over millions of years.

Success Criteria

I can describe features of the three main rock types and how these are formed by the rock cycle.

Why Study Rocks? 

Vocabulary Builder: Copy these definitions into your workbook (copy the heading and black writing into your books)

Igneous rock: Rocks formed by the cooling and solidifying of molten materials. Igneous rocks can form beneath the Earth's surface, or at its surface, as lava. Granite, solid volcanic lava, and basalt are examples of igneous rock. Much of the Melbourne area and Western Victoria is one gigantic volcanic plain formed by volcanic activity as recent as 5000 years ago. 

Sedimentary Rock: 

Rock that has formed through the deposition and solidification of sediment, especially sediment transported by water (rivers, lakes, and oceans), ice (glaciers), and wind. Sedimentary rocks are often deposited in layers, and frequently contain fossils.  Limestone and shale are common sedimentary rocks.

Many rocks of Bendigo are of this type! They are sedimentary beds of rock that were laid down 450 million years ago during the Ordovician period. Bendigo was once part of a deep sea.

Metamorphic Rock: 

Rock that was once one form of rock but has changed to another under the influence of heat, pressure, or some other agent without passing through a liquid phase.  Note: Examples are marble, which can be formed from limestone, and slate, which is formed from shale.

The Big Hill range as you leave Bendigo is a metamorphic ridge-line. During the Geologically active Permian era when the continental plates crashed together, some of the rocks were transformed by regional metamorphism, mineral-rich waters containing quartz and gold bubbled into rock fractures and the granite boulders of Mount Alexander formed and cooled in magma chambers underneath the earth's surface. Erosion has since eroded all but the most resistant granodiorite rocks of this mountain, which would have once been much taller. 

Rock kits, rock cycle and 3 types of rocks

Rock Cycle practical using Starbursts