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The Rock Cycle: Interactive & Printable Diagram

The rock cycle is a network of geologic pathways rather than a fixed circle with one starting point. Molten material below the surface is magma and erupted molten material is lava; cooling and crystallization form igneous rock. Uplift and exposure allow igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rock to weather and erode. Transport and deposition produce sediment, which may become sedimentary rock through burial, compaction, cementation, chemical precipitation, or biologic accumulation. Existing rock can become metamorphic rock when heat, pressure, deformation, and reactive fluids change it in the solid state without full melting. Sufficient heating can partly or fully melt any rock and return material to magma. Common igneous examples include granite, basalt, gabbro, and rhyolite. Sedimentary examples include conglomerate, sandstone, shale, and limestone. Metamorphic examples include slate, schist, gneiss, marble, and quartzite. These pathways take place over variable geologic timescales, may repeat, and are not limited to one sequence. Formation history guides field interpretation, but rock identification still requires texture, mineralogy, context, and sometimes laboratory evidence.

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Common questions

What are the three main types of rock?
Igneous rocks form when molten material cools; sedimentary rocks form through lithification, precipitation, or biologic accumulation; metamorphic rocks form when existing rock changes in the solid state under heat, pressure, deformation, or reactive fluids.
Does the rock cycle have a beginning?
No. The rock cycle is a network of possible pathways, not one required loop. A rock can enter the model at any point, repeat a process, or follow more than one route over geologic time.
Can any rock become another type of rock?
Given the appropriate processes and enough time, material from any rock type can follow pathways toward another type through exposure, weathering, burial, metamorphism, melting, or intermediate stages.
What is the difference between magma and lava?
Magma is molten rock below Earth's surface. Lava is molten rock that has erupted onto the surface. Both can cool to form igneous rock.
Does heat always melt a rock?
No. During metamorphism, heat and other conditions change a rock while it remains mostly solid. Melting marks a transition toward magma rather than metamorphic rock.

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