Benchmark 4C The Physical Setting: Processes that Shape the Earth

Benchmark 4C
The Physical Setting: Processes that Shape the Earth
Grades 6-8, page 73

Sedimentary rock buried deep enough may be reformed by pressure and heat, perhaps melting and recrystallizing into different kinds of rock. These re-formed rock layers may be forced up again to become land surface and even mountains. Subsequently, this new rock too will erode. Rock bears evidence of the minerals, temperatures, and forces that created it.

NSES Content Standard D
Earth and Space Science: Structure of the Earth system
Grades 5-8, page 160
Land forms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces. Constructive forces include crustal deformation, volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment, while destructive forces include weathering and erosion.

NSES Content Standard D
Earth and Space Science: Structure of the Earth system
Grades 5-8, page 160
Some changes in the solid earth can be described as the "rock cycle." Old rocks at the earth's surface weather, forming sediments that are buried, then compacted, heated, and often recrystallized into new rock. Eventually, these new rocks may be brought to the surface by the forces that drive plate motions, and the rock cycle continues.