Earth is literally recycled
Recommended for Secondary Grades
The earth we stand on seems permanent and unchanging. But the rocks that make up Earth’s crust are subject to a cycle of birth and death. That changes our planet’s surface over a long period.
So, as a matter of fact, the destruction of very old rocks by weathering processes and the changing into new rocks can be seen as “recycling”. The rock cycle is the change that comes from the constant recycling of the materials of the earth’s crust.
The recycling of the earth is a tectonic process. The recycling of surface material into the mantle is a process called subtraction erosion or delamination.
Earth is the only planet to have plate tectonics.
What is plate tectonics?
This is the movements of the large sheets of rock (plates) that form the earth’s surface. They then collide and sink back into the mantle through erosion.
This recycling system regulates the balance of carbon and other elements. This balance is also a major controller of the global climate.
There is evidence that the formation of continental earth crust took place 3.8 billion years ago. There are no rocks older than this.
The rock cycle continues and never stops. Mountains’ metamorphic rocks are broken and then washed away by streams. New sediments from these mountains then, can make new sedimentary rock.
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