 Aside from shaping the world around us, the rock cycle also has processes that influence the natural resources found within rocks. Us as humans use these resources to shape our modern day life. From the rare earth elements found in igneous rocks in our technology to the fossil fuels found in sedimentary rocks that we use to generate electricity and drive our cars. We have three rock types, igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. These rock types are all formed through different processes. Let's start off with the formation of igneous rocks. These are the rocks that are cool from molten rock. Let's take a pause there to think about how cool is that. Things that were used to be so solid on the surface, these igneous rocks are cooled from a molten semi-liquid mixture. There are two main types of igneous rocks. Those that cool on the surface think of lava flows in Hawaii and those that cool deep underground in magma chambers. The way the geologists can tell these apart is the texture of the rocks. Extrusive igneous rocks, those that cool on the surface, have a fine-grained texture because they are crystals that crystals cool slowly at the surface. Whereas the coarse-grained igneous rocks, those that cool underground, cool much slower so the crystals have a much longer time to form large crystals. Moving on to sedimentary rocks now. These rocks are formed by the burial, compaction and cementation of individual sediments. Think of those that you'd find on a beach front. These eventually get buried through subsequent deposition of layers on top of each other. Then under immense pressure, they're compacted into a consolidated rock, which we'll call a sedimentary rock. But how do these sediments even get to where they are? This all happens through weathering and erosion. These sediments are weathered from existing rocks, transported downstream and deposited in their environments. So you can think of sedimentary rocks as Earth's natural recycling system. And finally, let's explore metamorphic rocks. These rocks are formed through existing rocks being exposed to intense heat and or pressure. The three main types of metamorphism that we have are contact, regional and dynamic metamorphism. In future videos, we'll go into these different processes and the resulting rock types from these types of metamorphism. But for now, just have an understanding that metamorphic rocks are formed from existing rocks that are exerted to intense heat and pressure within the Earth's crust. Now you have an overview of the rock cycle and the processes that form all the different rocks around you. So now, with your new geological tool belt, I implore you to go for a walk without your tool belt and have a look at the world through a whole new lens. In our future video, we'll go into even greater depth into the igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. And by the end of this series, you will have a full comprehensive knowledge of the rock cycle and the processes within it.