Rocks

Explore the Building Blocks of Earth

Rocks are mixtures of minerals shaped by the rock cycle. Heat, pressure, melting, erosion and burial keep rebuilding Earth's crust.

Educational illustration

Three ways to read this collection

Igneous

Cooled from magma or lava.

Built from deposited and cemented material.

Changed by heat and pressure without melting.

Sample collection

Photography panels are ready for Stefan's real specimens.

A coarse-grained rock made as magma cooled slowly underground.

igneousCanada

Dark volcanic rock formed when lava cools quickly at the surface.

igneousUnited States

Sand grains pressed into a record of ancient landscapes.

sedimentaryUnited States

Fine rock transformed by pressure into strong, flat sheets.

metamorphicCanada

Limestone recrystallised by heat and pressure into interlocking crystals.

metamorphicBrazil