Rock Cycle Challenge – A 10-Question Trivia Quiz
This rock cycle challenge explains how rocks change between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic forms through melting, cooling, weathering, erosion, compaction, heat and pressure, and how James Hutton first described it. A 10-question trivia quiz with answers.
Start Rock Cycle Challenge
🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds
Cycle
What is the rock cycle?
Melting
What forms when rock melts?
Cooling
What type of rock forms when magma cools?
Weathering
What breaks rocks into smaller pieces?
Compaction
What process turns sediments into sedimentary rock?
Metamorphic
What changes rocks into metamorphic rocks?
Hutton
Who described the rock cycle in the 1700s?
Siccar
Which Scottish site showed Hutton deep time in rock layers?
Engine
What drives the rock cycle?
Any
Can any rock type become any other type?
Your score
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Scroll down to see the explanation for each question.
Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions
- Q1: What is the rock cycle?
Answer: How rocks change from one type to another over time
It never really stops.
- Q2: What forms when rock melts?
Answer: Magma
Magma may later cool into igneous rock.
- Q3: What type of rock forms when magma cools?
Answer: Igneous
Cooling speed affects crystal size.
- Q4: What breaks rocks into smaller pieces?
Answer: Weathering
Ice, water and roots cause it.
- Q5: What process turns sediments into sedimentary rock?
Answer: Compaction and cementation
Layers press together over time.
- Q6: What changes rocks into metamorphic rocks?
Answer: Heat and pressure
They change without fully melting.
- Q7: Who described the rock cycle in the 1700s?
Answer: James Hutton
He studied rocks in Scotland.
- Q8: Which Scottish site showed Hutton deep time in rock layers?
Answer: Siccar Point
It shows an unconformity.
- Q9: What drives the rock cycle?
Answer: Earth's internal heat and the Sun's energy
Plate tectonics and weather work together.
- Q10: Can any rock type become any other type?
Answer: Yes, given enough time and conditions
The cycle has many paths.
Rock Cycle Challenge – Rocks on the Move
The rock cycle describes how rocks continually change from one type to another. Igneous rocks form from cooled magma, sedimentary rocks from compacted sediments and metamorphic rocks from heat and pressure.
Weathering and erosion break rocks into sediment, which settles in layers and becomes sedimentary rock. Burial and heat can turn rocks into metamorphic rock, and melting creates magma that cools into new igneous rock.
James Hutton described this endless cycle in the 1700s, realizing Earth must be very old. Plate tectonics and the Sun's energy power the cycle, recycling Earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.
What This Quiz Teaches
This challenge is for students learning the rock cycle.
- What the rock cycle is
- How igneous rocks form
- What weathering does
- How metamorphic rocks form
- Who described the cycle
Did You Know?
- Sandstone can become quartzite.
- Shale can become slate.
- Granite can weather into sand.
- Subduction carries rocks deep underground.
- The cycle takes millions of years.
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