Imagine that a specimen has gone through the following transitions along the tim
ID: 290669 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine that a specimen has gone through the following transitions along the timeline given:
5 million years ago: a sandy beach
3 million years ago: a piece of sandstone
1.5 million years ago: a piece of quartzite
Today: a piece of granite
Describe the processes that would have occurred to create each of the different specimens above. How would they have transitioned from one type to the next? What might become of this sample in the future? What function could each of these types of sediment or rocks have for humans? Be sure to use the information you have learned about plate tectonics, the rock cycle, use of minerals and rocks as resources, and the formation of minerals and the three major rock types.
Explanation / Answer
ANSWER
5 million years ago: a sandy beach
It is created by the weathering process by the different types of agencies ( here mainly sea water and river water ) sand is weathered by those and converted into smaller particle and then deposited as a sandy beach
3 million years ago: a piece of sandstone
Then gradually with time thickness of sandy beach increases and therefore pressure on the old sand particle which lie under the new sand particle (upper part ) gradually increases . hence due to this pressure sand particles are consolidated and converted into piece of sandstone . this is a sedimentary rock
.5 million years ago: a piece of quartzite
Then as the time passes the pressure on the piece of sand also increase and side by side its depth also increases . therefore at relatively high pressure and temperature it convert into the quartzite which is a metamorphic rock .
Today: a piece of granite
But during the plate movement when two plates come to each other and one plate subduct over another plate , then if the piece of quartzite lies on the suvducting plate , then it moves into very high depth wher pressure and temperature both are very high and so it convert into magma and when that magma cools in very depth from the surface of earth during volcanism , then it convert into the granite . (which is a igneous rock )
In future this sample will converted into small particle by weathering process moves from one place to another by different agency (like water ) lastly produce sandy beach .