Earth image Rock Assignment

Dr. Pamela Gore
Georgia Perimeter College

Getting started:

  1. Read your web course notes on the Rock Cycle, Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks.
  2. Read Chapter 3 (Rocks: Materials of the Solid Earth) - p. 51-81 in your textbook (11th edition)
  3. Read Exercise 2 (Common Rocks) - p. 19-36 in your lab manual.
  4. To do this exercise, you will need:
    1. Ward's "Know Your Rocks" Collection
    2. Ward's Rock and Mineral Test Kit
    3. Hopefully you will have access to dilute hydrochloric acid from your school chemistry lab. Or you may purchase a small container of muriatic acid at a hardware store. You will need to follow any warnings or directions on the package. This is acid. It will burn through your clothing and can injure your skin or eyes. We recommend that you use safety goggles and latex or vinyl gloves when dealing with hydrochloric or muriatic acid. Alternatively, you can work with your instructor and he or she should be able to tell you which of the samples will react with hydrochloric acid.

  

Instructions:

  1. Follow the instructions with your rock collection to test and identify your unknown samples.
    Do not mix the specimens from the various sets until you have identified them according to the instructions.
    As each group of specimens is identified, you may number them according to the key in the instructions.
    Numbers and glue are provided in your kit. Take a hole punch and punch out the number. Use Elmer's glue to apply the number to a corner of the sample on the worst looking side. Do not cover up the best looking side of the sample.

  2. Work through Exercise 2 in the lab manual, answering the questions, using the samples in your rock collection.
    Answer all of the questions.
    For question 9, use a magnifying glass or hand lens (or preferably a microscope, if available).
    For question 12, using your 8 igneous rock samples, fill in the igneous rock identification chart on p. 27, noting their texture, color, minerals present, and determine the rock name.
    For question 14, use a magnifying glass or hand lens (or preferably a microscope, if available) to examine your specimen of conglomerate.
    For question 17, follow all safety precautions for using acid.  If hydrochloric acid is not available, you may skip this, or post to the bulletin board to have your instructor tell you which ones fizz.
    For question 18, using your 8 sedimentary rock samples, fill in the sedimentary rock identification chart on p. 29.
    Your book uses the word "detrital" which is basically a synonym for clastic or terrigenous.
    In question 21, you are to circle either the word slate or the word schist.
    In question 22, circle either the word phyllite or gneiss.
    For question 23, use either schist or gneiss, but tell which one you are using.
    For question 24, examine quartzite and marble.
    For question 25, using your 8 metamorphic rock samples, fill in the metamorphic rock identification chart on p. 33.

  3. For review, please answer the summary page on p. 35-36.

  4. Make a collection, over the next few weeks, of as many different types of rocks as you can locate. You may collect them in the field near home or on a day trip to a geologically interesting area, find them around construction areas or gravel parking lots, obtain them from a garden supply center, landscape supply or hardware store, at a local "gem, mineral, and fossil show", in a museum gift shop, from a local rock hound or mineral society (such as the Georgia Mineral Society or Cobb County Mineral Society), etc.
    Organize your specimens in some way.
    Identify them.

Return to Earth & Space Science page

Return to Georgia Geoscience Online

Page created by Pamela J.W. Gore
Georgia Perimeter College,
Clarkston, GA

Page created May 5, 2005
Updated May 24, 2006
Updated June 30, 2009