The Rock Cycle is Earth's great recycling process where igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks can all be derived from and form one another. Analogous to recycling a Coke can, where an old can ...

Researchers have discovered microdiamonds in the Nishisonogi metamorphic rock formation in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Microdiamonds in metamorphic rocks are important minerals because they form in ...

Igneous and metamorphic petrology represent two fundamental branches of geological science that elucidate the formation, transformation, and evolution of Earth’s solid materials. Igneous petrology ...

Some rocks are very common on earth. Large portions of the continents consist for example of granite and basalt covers almost all of the oceanic crust. Other rocks are formed only when very specific ...

High-pressure metamorphic rocks form during subduction of Earth’s crust to mantle depths at convergent plate margins. Their exposure at the surface of Earth today provides a record of the subduction ...

Researchers have produced a new estimate for the origin of Earth's plate tectonics—the movement of large chunks of the planet's outer layer, or crust. Although there is broad consensus that plate ...

Feldspar is the name of a group of rock-forming minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust. Feldspars crystallize from magma in both intrusive and extrusive rocks, and they can also ...

We often talk about climate change, melting glaciers, or strange landforms. But we rarely think about something that’s always around us– rocks. They don’t make the news, but they’re everywhere. We ...