EARTHSC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Continental Crust, Oceanic Crust, Igneous Rock

• School: Ohio State University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: EARTHSC 1100
• Professor: Steven Lower

Document Summary

Oxygen makes up 50%, silicon makes up 25%, the other 25% are k, na, al, fe, ca, Si-o tetrahedron is most common because those are the most commonly occurring elements that work well together. Isolated (olivine/ma c), single chain (pyroxene/ma c), double chain (amphibole/ma c), sheet (biotite & muscovite/felsic), rigid framework silicate (quartz/felsic) Atoms (ionic) bond together to create minerals, which create rocks, which are from oceanic or continental crust. If hot material cools on earth"s surface (outside a volcano), it"s extrusive. Don"t have time to create large crystals before cooling. When it collides with continental crust, it gets subducted down into the surface and melts. Quartz (felsic) melts into a liquid (and hot liquid rises) Olivine and pyroxene melt at a higher temperature, so they have to continue to descend. The melted quartz can cool down at a number of places. This is why continental crust is lighter than oceanic crust.