Weird But True Know-It-All: Rocks and Minerals

Weird But True Know-It-All: Rocks and Minerals — page 3
ROCKING YOUR WORLD What does a tiny grain of sand have in common with a giant boulder What do they both have in common with a pebble on a playground Because you grabbed this book and not one on say dinosaurs- you can probably guess They're all rocks Almost our entire planet is made up of rocks Once you take away the air water and living things from the surface of our planet what you're left with is pretty much a whole lot of rock They come in many sizes and colors and are formed in different ways You can spot them everywhere Whether you're catching some rays on a beach exploring a canyon or just strolling down a city street you're bound to come upon or sometimes trip over -rocks or something made from them And then there are the rocks we can't see like the red hot rock deep below Earth's surface and the rocky mountain ranges deep within the oceans depths And just in case you're wondering there are plenty of rocks in outer space too Some are pieces of planets or smaller space objects called asteroids The rocks break off from the planets or asteroids and hit Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 160,000 miles an hour 257,495 km/h The space rocks that make the journey all the way to Earth's surface are called meteorites While they land all over the planet many meteorites are found on Antarctica The icy continent is very dry so the meteorites aren't damaged by water in the air as they are in most other regions Plus since Antarctica is covered in ice the dark meteorites are easy to spot against the white surface Luckily for you you don't have to go to Antarctica to see meteorites or take a submarine ride to explore underwater mountains Keep reading as we leave no stone unturned to help you learn all about rocks wherever they're found Whoaaa PAY DIRT By one estimate Earth's deserts and beaches contain more than seven quintillion grains of sand that's a seven followed by 18 zeros