Rock Cycle Infographic · Earth and Space Sciences Reference Tables (ESSRT)

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The Rock Cycle Infographic from the Reference Tables for Earth and Space Sciences (ESSRT) shows how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form and change into one another as matter and energy move through the Earth system. It primarily supports HS-ESS2-5.

What the Rock Cycle Infographic shows

The infographic is drawn as a cutaway landscape. On the left, magma driven by mantle heat rises, intrudes and cools into intrusive igneous rocks such as granite, diorite and gabbro, or erupts to form extrusive rocks such as basalt, andesite and rhyolite. Weathering, erosion and sorting carry sediments to the ocean, where deposition, burial, compaction and cementation turn them into sedimentary rocks such as shale, sandstone, conglomerate and limestone; evaporation, reef buildup and marshes add rock salt, gypsum and coal. With increasing heat and pressure these become metamorphic rocks such as slate, phyllite, schist, gneiss, quartzite and marble, and melting returns rock to magma.