Science · Level 3 · 162 words
How Rock Becomes Rock Again
Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.
Rock may look permanent, but over long stretches of time it changes from one form into another. Deep below the surface, intense heat melts rock into a glowing liquid called magma. When magma cools, either underground or after erupting from a volcano, it hardens into igneous rock.
Wind and water then break that rock into tiny grains. The grains settle in layers at the bottom of lakes and seas, and over millions of years the weight above presses them into sedimentary rock.
If sedimentary rock is buried deeper still, heat and pressure can squeeze and bake it into metamorphic rock without fully melting it. Should that rock sink far enough to melt, it becomes magma again. Geologists call this endless loop the rock cycle, and it has been turning for billions of years.
Because each step takes so long, a single grain of sand may carry the history of several different rocks within it, a record patient observers can learn to read.
Source: Written for Fluency. Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.