Part of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Victoria, PACTAC is a pioneering, multidisciplinary research centre, and home to the electronic scholarly journal CTheory, CTheory Archive, and CTheory Multimedia.
Rocks: Rocks are a composed of one or more minerals. A rock can be made up of only one mineral or, as shown in the figure, a rock can be made up of a number of different minerals. So, rocks are composed of one or more minerals and minerals are composed of one or more elements. Previous Item: Why should we study rocks? Go Up: Learn About Rocks
All three rock types - igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic - make up a portion of the rock cycle. Igneous rocks are rocks that formed directly from magma and can form either in the earth or on its surface. Igneous rocks can weather and be compressed to form sedimentary rocks, rock made up eroded material broken off of other rocks and cemented together, and both of these can be transformed into metamorphic rock.