The Rock Cycle: A Visual Explainer
A single infographic tracing how rock material cycles endlessly between the three rock families — igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic — through cooling, weathering, lithification, metamorphism and melting.
📌 Revision Pointers
Magma → Igneous Rock via Cooling & Crystallization; Igneous Rock → Sediment via Weathering & Erosion.
Sediment → Sedimentary Rock via Compaction & Cementation (Lithification); Sedimentary Rock → Metamorphic Rock via Heat & Pressure (without melting).
Metamorphic Rock → Magma via Melting, closing the loop — though in reality any rock type can weather into sediment, melt into magma, or metamorphose directly, without following this exact order.
One clean labeled diagram maps the five-stage rock cycle loop, from molten magma to igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock and back again.
💭 Conclusion
A high-yield Prelims diagram-based question source — examiners frequently test the correct sequence and process-labels of rock transformation.