This week in science we each had to bring in a rock and classify it. The rock I had to classify was white and shiny. It looked like the shiny part was small crystals. The rock was heavy as it was once bigger and something compacted it and it got really small. I think the rock I had was a metamorphic rock. I think heat and pressure transformed an igneous rock into a metamorphic rock and thats the rock i had to classify.

I think this rock is metamorphic because it had a shiny coating. When I looked at it under the stereoscope the shiny coating looked like small crystals. Igneous rocks have crystals in them sometimes. When the heat and prssure started changing the igneous rock the crystals were crushed and formed a coating over the new rock. I think that the rock i was supposed to classify is a metamorphic rock but was once an igneous rock.


This week in science we also lesrned about heating. We learned that heat is not an actual physical thing. We also learned how a thermometer works. The particles in the thermometer start moving very fast when the air particles around the thermometer start colliding against them. When the particles in the thermometer move faster they need more room to move around so they start moving up.

This week in science we learned how to tell which rocks were igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary. Igneous rocks might have crystals, metamorphic rocks are sometimes smooth, and sedimentary rocks break eaily.


One question asked in class was, "Can one type of rock turn into another type of rock?" I think that one type of rock can turn into another. The other question asked was "What has to happen for this to occur?" I think for this to happen subduction needs to occur. If there is one small plate that has metamorphic and sedimentary rock on it and another bigger plate collides into it then the smaller plate will be forced under the bigger plate. When the smaller plates is forced under the bigger one then the small one will melt down into magma. When that plate is melted everything on that plate will melt to. So those metamorphic and sedimentary rocks will melt. When the bigger plate cracks, magma will come up through that crack. That magma is made up from the melted sedimentary and metamorphic rocks so when it goes through the crack, it will cool. When the magma cools, it will turn into igneous rock. That igneous rock was once seimentary and metamorphic rock.


Also metamorphic and igneous rock can turn into sedimentary rock. If there is a land formation made up of metamorphic rock or igneous rock then it can be eroded. When the formation is eroded then those tiny pieces of the formation will get into the rivers and the rivers will bring it to a deposition zone. When the tiny pieces of metamorphic and igneous rock get into the deposition zone they get stuck together and form a rock. The rock that was once metamorphic and igneous is now sedimentary rock.


On Friday we learned that sometimes we have to break open a rock to see what kind of rock it is. The outside of the rock might be normal and look like cement but if you break it open, it could have crystals forming. That means the rock is probably igneous but if someone just looked at the outside they might not have known that.

This week in science we learned about crystals. We melted moth balls in class and the let them cool under different cicumstances to see how big the crystals would form. We let one cool in a glass of ice water, one cool at room temperature, and one cool in a very hot temperature. The moth ball that we put in the cold temperature formed a crystal very quickly and the moth ball we put in the hot temperature formed a crystal very slowly.

When the crystals were done forming we looked at them and they were all different sizes. The crystal that formed in the hot temperature was very small. The crystal that formed in the cold temperature was large and the crystal formed in room temperature was inbetween the sizes of the other two crystals. We realized that the longer it takes for the crystals to cool, the larger the crystals will be. If the crstal takes a long time to cool then the crystal will be very small and thin.

We also realized that if magma takes a long time to cool then the crystals inside it will be bigger. If the magma takes a very short time to cool then the crystals will be smaller. The moth balls are just like the rock and magma because the crystals form the same way in both.

This week in scienc we learned about what was happening in Iceland. Iceland is splitting apart bvecause the North Atalntic Ridge goes right though the middle of it. The North Atlantic Ridge is slowly breaking apart and that means Iceland is breaking into two peices.

On Thursday we got a worksheet called "Determining the Age od Sedimentry Rock Layer". It had different laws on the front page. The laws were; Law of Superposition, Law of Original Horizontality, Law of Lateral Continuity, and Cross-Cutting Relationship.

Law of Superposition- This is when younger rock layers cover the older rock layers.

Law of Original Horizontality- This is when the rock layers cover each other horizontally.

Law of Lateral Continuity- Rock was deposited and then it seperated. Then the rck was alternated.

Cross-Cutting Relationship- A younger rock cuts through an older rock.