Most of the Earth's surface rocks are covered by soil or clay. Soil contains very small crushed pieces of rock and organic (plant and animal remains) material. Plants such as grass and trees grow in this region of the crust. The photo above shows a recent eruption of ash that has covered and burned an area of dense vegetation in Hawaii. The lava has cooled and is now a volcanic rock called basalt. The weathering process will break the basalt down into small, finer pieces of rock called soil. This process can take a few years or thousands of years to produce soil fine enough for plants to grow well in. The soil will become fertile when bacteria decomposes plant and animal material adding nutrients for living plants. Rocks are produced in a variety of ways and have been cycled in some area many times. This cycling of the rocks is called the rock cycle.

Granite is an igneous rock that is composed of four minerals. These minerals are quartz, feldspar, mica, and usually hornblende. Granite forms as magma cools far under the earth's surface. Because it hardens deep underground it cools very slowly. This allows crystals of the four minerals to grow large enough to be easily seen by the naked eye. Look at the photo of granite above, notice the different crystals in the rock. Granite is an excellent material for building bridges and buildings because it can withstand thousands of pounds of pressure. It is also used for monuments because it weathers slowly. Engravings in the granite can be read for hundreds of years, making the rock more valuable.
 

Feldspar is the most abundant mineral in rocks that are located at or near the earth's surface. Feldspar can have a glassy white, blue, green, or red crystals. All feldspars contain silica and aluminum. When feldspars are exposed to the atmosphere they break down or weather easily. When they are broken down, feldspar forms other minerals, many of which are clay minerals. Feldspars also contain potassium which is a major nutrient for plant growth. The clays formed by weathered feldspar are used by pottery manufacturing plants. Kaolinite is the highest quality of the feldspar clays used by potters. Feldspar is number 6 on the Mohs hardness scale.

Mica is a mineral that can be split into very thin sheets. These sheets can be so thin that 1000 can be layered into mica 1 inch high. Mica can be clear, black, green, red, yellow, and brown. Clear mica is called Muscovite because it is found near Moscow, Russia and was used as window glass in the Muscovite's homes. Muscovite contains water which helps to make it clear. Biotite mica is dark green to black in color because it contains iron, magnesium. Mica is mined in Brazil, India, many parts of Africa, Canada, and the United

The lightest rocks form the continents, which are made mostly of the rock granite. Most of the granite on the continents has, over millions of years, been broken down, transported, and deposited into sedimentary rock. These layers of sedimentary rock vary from 8-9 miles thick to nothing in some areas like the Canadian Shield of North America. The Canadian Shield has huge outcroppings of granite right on the surface. Under the thick layers of sedimentary rock lies the denser granite. The granitic continents ride on a much denser rock called basalt. These basalts form the bottom of our continents and the bottoms of our great oceans. This layer of rock extends down to 40 miles from the surface of the earth. The crust is very thin in comparison to the other layers of the earth. The crust is only 3 miles thick under the oceans and about 40 miles thick under the highest mountain chains. The layer of the earth under the crust is called the mantle. It is over 1800 miles thick!! The crust and the upper level of the mantle form a layer of the earth that moves very slowly (1-4 inches per year). This layer that moves and causes earthquakes and volcanoes is called the Lithosphere.