Monolith

• Pena de Bernal (Bernal Boulder) is the second-largest monolith in the world, after after Mount Augustus in Western Australia and the forth tallest after Mt. Augustus, the Rock of Gibraltar, and Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro. It is located beside the small colonial town of Villa de Bernal, in the center of the Mexican state of Queretaro. The monumental rock arises 248 meters over the town.

Monolith

• Geological feature such as a mountain, that is a SINGLE stone or rock

Metamorphic Rock

• Metamorphism refers to changes in mineral composition or rock geometry that occurs in SOLID rocks with increasing temperature and pressure

• HIGH temperatures and/or pressures are responsible for changing one rock to another

• Metamorphism occurs below the Earth’s surface.

Metamorphic Rock

• Everywhere on Earth, temperature and pressure increases with depth

• The ORIGINAL rock from which a metamorphic rock is formed is called a PROTOLITH

Metamorphic Rock

• http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es0607/es0607page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

• http://www.wwnorton.com/college/geo/animations/foliation.htm

• Foliation: the tendency for a metamorphic rock to split along parallel planes (looks like layers)

Metamorphic Rock

• Metamorphic Rocks are classified by TEXTURE and STRUCTURE

• Texture is used for rock geometry on the scale of grains; size of grains, mutual geometrical arrangement of grains are aspects of texture.

• Structure is used for rock geometry on a scale much larger than grains; layering is an example of rock structure.

• Metamorphism alters both texture and structure of rocks

Fault / Faulting

Most kinds of metamorphic rocks, change in mineral composition is accompanied by strong shearing deformation.

Deformation can change the shape of grains in a rock

Faulting - brittle behavior in which a rock responds to stress by developing one or more fractures. Deformation of the rock concentrates along the fractures. Slip along faults frequently occurs through sudden ruptures

Fault / Faulting

Regional Metamorphism

• Metamorphism that affects enormous (large amounts) volumes of rock in large regions of the Earth’s crust by an increase in temperature and pressure during deep burial is called Regional Metamorphism

• Subduction zones are the most important setting for regional metamorphism.

Contact Metamorphism

• Rocks in the immediate vicinity of a newly emplaced intrusive body of magma are heated as the magma loses heat to its surroundings. If the temperature becomes sufficiently high, new minerals that are stable at high temperatures can grow at the expense of the preexisting minerals. This is called Contact Metamorphism

Metamorphic Rock

• The state rock of Colorado is Yule Marble.• There is a town called Marble, Colorado. It is

located 4 hours Southwest of Denver, CO.