There are over 5,000 known types of minerals. Just a few minerals make up most of the rocks we see, though: feldspars, amphiboles, quartz, olivine, garnet, micas, calcite, and pyroxenes.

What FACTS ABOUT ROCKS do you know? They are abundant on earth, and yet little is known about them. These facts will increase your knowledge of the rocks.

5 Cementation In the final process of sedimentary rock formation, some of the minerals in the sediment harden and form a kind of cement which sticks the grains of the rock together. Look through ...

Chalcedonies include many types of cryptocrystalline quartz gems ... are made of clusters or mixtures of minerals, and minerals and rocks affect landform development and form natural resources ...

Primary minerals form at elevated temperatures from cooling magma during the original solidification of rock or during metamorphism, and they are usually derived from igneous and metamorphic rocks ...

At CU Boulder, we use petrology to study the formation of volcanoes and their magmatic sources, the evolution of continental crust during the growth and destruction of mountain belts, the genesis of ...