Labs / Geography
Drive the Rock Cycle
You have one rock sample, and it starts as glowing magma. Apply a geologic process — only the ones that are physically possible right now light up — and watch the sample crystallize, crumble, layer, or band as it travels between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock. Click a process button or tap a node on the wheel.
Rock MagmaType MoltenProcess —T 1200°CP 8 kbar
What to try
- Can you make sedimentary rock without ever passing through magma first?
- Which process is available from every solid rock, and why does that make it a shortcut back to the start?
- What has to happen before loose sediment can become solid rock again?
- Turn on the conditions gauge: which state sits at the highest temperature, and which at the highest pressure?
- Can a metamorphic rock become a different metamorphic rock, or does it have to leave that corner of the cycle first?