The Rock Cycle Blues

© 2005 Beth Vernon

 

Which rock will it stay Can you figure it out

From one rock to another on a recycling route

But never in a hurry On Earth's "takin' its time clock" (they don't stop)

They keep changin' rearrangin' that's the cycle of a rock

 

We'll start this blues song With an igneous rock

Which gets its beginning In Earth's big melting pot

Belched from the big magma flow Into the bedrock or on top

Through a crack called a volcano Out comes an igneous rock

 

Then the Earth's elements won't leave the poor rock alone

Ice, wind and water They break up the stone

Into tiny, tiny pieces we call sediment (the dirt begins)

They get all stuck together....THAT DARNED ROCK'S CHANGED AGAIN!

 

Just when you think the sedimentary rock is finished

The plates keep tecton-in' and the rock gets all squished

Or changed by pressure Or hot from magma way too close

Bands form from rock rearrangin' --THEY GET ALL METAMORPHOSED!

 

But if you think this is the end You're not thinkin' too clear

'Cause a rock won't stop no it won't stop here

It gets weathered, squished or melted Baby, in this you can take stock

Changin' forever and ever....that's the cycle of a rock

Instrumental

When men first discovered this It came as a shock

It was thought only one identity for each kind of rock

Like a sort of registration, baby given at birth (but no sir!)

But now we're gettin' a handle on our dynamic earth

 

Changin' forever and ever that's the cycle of a rock

We learn earth's deepest, dark secrets from the voices in the rocks

Changin' forever and ever that's the cycle of a rock