How do I explain the rock cycle to a kid, in story form?
1 Answer
Perhaps the following, starting with shifting plates.
Explanation:
Once upon a time the Earth was moving around - continents were floating around and crashing into one another. Some that crashed into each other pushed up great mountain chains, like the Rocky Mountains in Canada. But as soon as the mountains appeared, the wind and rain started to tear the mountains down again. They broke up the mountains into tiny bits and deposited them in the sea as great think piles of sediments and mud. These sediments and muds eventually turned to rock. But these rocks were dragged back down into the deep earth and recycled. As the rocks melted, they produced giant volcanoes that spit up more new igneous rocks. New igneous rocks also form where plates below the ocean are being torn apart.
