I. California K-6 standards for Metamorphic Rocks

II. Goals of This Module

III. Metamorphic Rock

IV. Names for Foliated Metamorphic Rocks

V. Names for Non-foliated Metamorphic Rocks

VI. Uses for Metamorphic Rocks

VII. Laboratory Exercises

VIII. Possible Essay Questions

IX. Practice Questions

1. Kindergarten
1. Earth Sciences Topics
1. The Earth is composed of land, air, and water. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:
1. how to identify resources from the Earth that are used in everyday life, and that many resources can be conserved.

 

2. Investigation and Experimentation
1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
1. observe common objects using the five senses.
2. describe the properties of common objects.
3. compare and sort common objects based on one physical attribute (including color, shape, texture, size, weight).
4. communicate observations orally and in drawings.

2. Grade 2
1. Earth Sciences Topics
1. Earth is made of materials that have distinct properties and provide resources for human activities. As the basis for understanding this concept, students know:
1. how to compare the physical properties of different kinds of rocks and that rock is composed of different combinations of minerals.
2. rocks, water, plants and soil provide many resources including food, fuel, and building materials that humans use.

 

2. Investigation and Experimentation
1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content of the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
1. compare and sort common objects based on two or more physical attributes (including color, shape, texture, size, weight).

3. Grade 4
1. Earth Sciences Topics
1. The properties of rocks and minerals reflect the processes that formed them. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:
1. how to differentiate among igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks by their properties and methods of formation (the rock cycle).

4. Grade 6
1. Resources
1. Sources of energy and materials differ in amounts, distribution, usefulness, and the time required for their formation. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:
1. different natural energy and material resources, including air, soil, rocks, minerals, petroleum, fresh water, wildlife, and forests, and classify them as renewable or nonrenewable.

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• To learn the processes that form metamorphic rocks.
• To learn the definitions of and proper spelling for scientific terms that are used commonly in newspapers, magazines, and books, and on television and radio programs to discuss metamorphic rocks.
• To learn how to identify the most common metamorphic rocks.
• To learn which metamorphic rocks serve as resources and how they are used in everday life.

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• Definition - any rock that originates by a process of change from what it was previously. Any former igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rock can be metamorphosed (changed) into a new metamorphic rock.
• Agents or promoters of metamorphism -
• Increase in temperature - rocks are heated by deep burial or subduction or by the presence of nearby magma, but are not melted.
• Increase in pressure - pressure also increases during deep burial or subduction.
• Reaction with surrounding hot fluids and gases - crystallization of new minerals is enhanced by exchange of ions with nearby hot, magmatic fluids and gases.

• Changes that occur during metamorphism -
• Mineral crystals change from random to parallel orientation -

A rock that contains parallel- or sub-parallel-oriented mineral grains is said to be foliated
Foliation promotes cleavage in rocks (they break easily along parallel planes).
Mineral crystals increase in size -
A fine-grained or finely crystalline rock, given a long enough period of metamorphism, will become coarsely crystalline.

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• Mineral crystals are disc or pencil shaped and are parallel or sub-parallel to one another.

Crystals invisible = slate (metamorphosed shale)
Crystals easily visible and of uniform composition = schist
Crystals easily visible and the rock is banded in alternate dark and light layers = gneiss

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• If mineral crystals are disc or pencil shaped, their parallel orientation is easily discernible and the rock is clearly foliated. If all mineral crystals are equant (length, width, and height are equal) there can be no discernible parallel orientation.
• Nonfoliated rocks - mineral crystals are equant in shape.

Made of calcite = marble (metamorphosed limestone)
Made of quartz = quartzite (metamorphosed sandstone)

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