Rock Identification with Willsey: Intro to Metamorphic Rocks!

Learn about metamorphism and metamorphic rocks with geology professor Shawn Willsey. Look for future videos that dive into specific types of metamorphic rocks.

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Shawn Willsey
148 Blue Lakes Blvd N
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Twin Falls, ID 83301

[shawnwillsey]

I appreciate your support, comments, and encouragement as we learn together.

[nothanks]

Thanks for these ID videos. They are immensely helpful to amateurs like myself.

[warren.pettey]

Loved this series! This is so much more helpful to me than what I get from written guides, alone. Many thanks!

[SJSantaBarbara]

Great series! You are doing what YouTube was made for.

[patrickkillilea]

Another great presentation. Thank you Prof. Willsey!

[sdmike]

Thanks! These bite sized lessons are great! Good to see the story behind the rocks out there.

[Anne_]

I've been following this rock Id series. I found this explanation of metamorphism exceptionally clear and easy to understand. Thankfully I have put the id videos into their own playlist. It has been awhile since I did the first videos. I'm discovering that I need to go back and review them. Old brains I find need more repetition. I'm trying as I watch geology videos to pick out the types of rocks on my own. I'm currently enjoying your Iceland series. Any new videos, such as this one I will watch as soon as I can each day. Thanks.

[geomodelrailroader]

Thanks for showing this Willsey. One key word to remember with metamorphic rock is compression. These rocks are under the earths surface and layers have crushed them over time and weathered them to change them. An example of metamorphic rock is coal when coal was formed it started out as peat you compress peat you get lignite, you compress lignite you get bituminous, and you compress bituminous you get anthracite. One more step is needed to turn coal into a crystal it needs to be heated close to the melting point but not enough to destroy it because when anthracite is heated and compressed it turns to diamonds and thats how they find them. Same process happens with quartzite crystals before that they were sandstone it all has to do with compression.

[Jukindza]

You are just perfect teacher!
It is so awesome that I can be your student, although I live on the opposite side of the planer (:
My country Estonia has an issue with metheorites - we have lots of impact places. One of them created an island - Osmussaar ( locals called it "grave of Odin"). On the island we have huge pieces of brecha created by the impact, and as a further consiquence - all limestone island is covered with huge and long quarcite "networks" with pyrite and fossils right under your feet.

[kateyeomans]

As a geology student this is great supplemental material and made into wonderful bite sized portions super great for watching the day before an exam when fried from studying. Thank you!!!

[TheAdominableDrPhibes]

Yessir - the story is the thing! Thanks!

[Rachel.]

Ah ha! Low, med, high grade! Important pieces to remember. Hopefully one day I'll pick up a rock and read it. Correctly. You're a great teacher. 👏🏻 Thank you!

[ericheether]

Very interesting! That was a lot great info, gave me a much better picture of these types of rock!

[KT_]

I'm a subscriber and absolutely love your amazing videos! I love hiking and have visited many national parks, and I have a great need to understand everything about the rock formations, and your videos really help me have better understanding of these formations before and after my trips! So, thank you so much for sharing your passion and knowledge to help us have greater appreciation for the geological wonders of our earth!

[sarahdawn]

Thanks for this series. It's just what I've been looking for to help me understand the rocks that I collect.

PS: This is the first time I've heard someone describe a meteor impact as "sexy". That's cute. I find them fascinating too!

[gwynnfarrell]

This explains so much about the immense variety of rocks out there. Thank you!

[williamsohveymah]

Yay! Totally awesome. Makes my head spin. 😂 Makes me more a better interpretive guide. Thank you, Shawn.

[dawsonschilz]

Thank you so much for these helpful videos Shawn. Hopefully they will help me pass the Rocks and Mineral Quiz!

[jakegroat]

I hung in there! Thanks Shawn. I've been traveling to NYC lately. The geology of that area is really amazing. There's a lot of gneiss there.

[Laserblade]

Thank you Professor. You are helping me build an understanding of a granite that I have wondered about - Verde Butterfly. I have a beautiful polished slab as a bartop that I have struggled to understand. After learning from you, I speculate it is a high-grade metamorphic rock of folliated feldspar crystals with a random orientation to one another. As minerals have different temperatures where they reduce and are 'liberated' to migrate and accumulate, that explains the abundant garnet crystals in this stone. Because of the high temperatures associated with high-grade metamorphic rocks I guess the white constituent to be quartz.
Any further understanding of that stone would be greatly appreciated.
I have poured over information available on the net, and learning the fundamental geology of minerals from you has been the most enlightening.