The Rock Cycle is Earth's great recycling process where igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks can all be derived from and form one another. Analogous to recycling a Coke can, where an old can ...

Researchers have discovered microdiamonds in the Nishisonogi metamorphic rock formation in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Microdiamonds in metamorphic rocks are important minerals because they form in ...

The oldest blueschists—metamorphic rocks formed during subduction—are of Neoproterozoic age 1, and 0.7–0.8 billion years old. Yet, subduction of oceanic crust to mantle depths is thought to have ...

Sedimentary rocks are made up of pieces of older rocks (igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary) and organic remains (shells, bone, etc.). When rocks break apart from erosion they are transported by ...

Researchers have produced a new estimate for the origin of Earth's plate tectonics—the movement of large chunks of the planet's outer layer, or crust. Although there is broad consensus that plate ...

Collectors of all ages have always been interested in rocks and the minerals that make them up. They come in countless shapes, sizes and colors. There are three main types of rocks: sedimentary, ...

Sedimentary rock is one of the three main rock groups (along with igneous and metamorphic rocks) and is formed in four main ways: by the deposition of the weathered remains of other rocks (known as ...

We often talk about climate change, melting glaciers, or strange landforms. But we rarely think about something that’s always around us– rocks. They don’t make the news, but they’re everywhere. We ...

a: Geological zone in western Japan. The blue-green part is the Sanbagawa belt that crosses mainland Japan. The Nishisonogi metamorphic rock was thought to belong to the same geological formation as ...