Have you ever seen a rock and wondered what it’s made of? Let’s discover five remarkable rocks facts for kids.
The Stone Age was a period of around 2.5 million years when humans used rock based tools before they discovered metals. Humans during the Stone Age created spears, cutting tools, and even wheels using stone. Stones allowed humans to hunt for food, build houses, and even cook food on flat stones. Smooth stones found at the bottom of rivers were even used by early civilizations to clean clothes.
Volcanoes are mountains that have a crater at their peak, if a volcano is active it can erupt spewing magma and ash from the mantle under the Earth’s surface. The magma that flows out of volcanoes is made of rock that is so hot it flows like water. This rock can cool down and form land formations. Entire islands can form from magma solidifying after it comes out of the volcano and hits the ocean, the water cools it down and creates new land. Hawaii is a volcanic island range meaning it was created by magma.
There are many types of rock found on Earth and in space which have different properties. Scientists group these rocks into different types so they can study their uses, such as volcanic rock, which comes from volcanoes. Pumice stone is a type of rock that comes from volcanoes and it is so light that it can float in water. People even use it to scrub their skin in the bath!
Have you ever made a wish on a shooting star? You might have seen one flying across the night sky and wondered what it was. A shooting star is a small meteor, which is a piece of rock or dust in space. Shooting stars look like stars because they travel so quickly in space that it makes them glow. Some shooting stars even land on Earth and are called meteorites, these rocks can tell us more about space. Shooting stars move so quickly through the sky they are only visible for a second so you are very lucky to see one!
The strength of rocks are measured on the Mohs Scale of Hardness, which measures how strong they are compared to other rocks. Diamonds are the highest material on the scale with a hardness of ten out of ten. They are the strongest material known to humans. Diamonds are often used for jewellery especially rings but diamonds also have a lot of other uses. Diamonds are even used to make the tips of drills because they can cut through lots of strong materials without being damaged. What a useful rock!
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about rocks as much as we loved teaching you about it. Now that you know how majestic these rocks are, you can move on to learn more about our amazing Earth like: Water, Four Seasons, Seas and Lakes, Miraculous Atmosphere, Tallest Mountain vs Deepest Ocean, Earth and Earthquakes.
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