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"To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

See some,

go to USGS

 Go to the Volcano World Metamorphic Rock Lesson...

 

Rocks that have been changed by heat and pressure, or in composition, over a very long time.

• Great heat and immense pressure can change any rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, without melting

 - that change is a metamorphosis

Heat and Pressure
 

• Huge areas of rock under the surface can undergo long periods and small areas of contact between opposing land masses can metamorphose which can involve:

• Changing shape (flattening, spreading out)

• Changing composition (exchange of atoms, ions, isotopes)

CLASSIFICATION OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS

Foliated

• Flattened mineral grains, lined up in parallel bands

 Examples: slate, gneiss

 CAUTION!!!          Be careful to not confuse these with certain sedimentary rocks!
 

Nonfoliated
 

• Mineral grains are changed in many ways, but are not arranged in layers or bands

Examples:

Quartzite (from sandstone)

Marble (from limestone, high in calcite)