What is the rock cycle and how does it change the lithosphere?

The rock cycle is a basic concept in geology that describes the time-consuming transitions through geologic time among the three main rock types: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. As the adjacent diagram illustrates, each of the types of rocks is altered or destroyed when it is forced out of its equilibrium conditions. An igneous rock such as basalt may break down and dissolve when exposed to the atmosphere, or melt as it is subducted under a continent. Due to the driving forces of the rock cycle, plate tectonics and the water cycle, rocks do not remain in equilibrium and are forced to change as they encounter new environments. The rock cycle is an illustration that explains how the three rock types are related to each other, and how processes change from one type to another over time. This cyclical aspect makes rock change a geologic cycle and, on planets containing life, a biogeochemical cycle.

Plate movements drive the rock cycle by pushing rocks back into the mantle, where they melt and become magna again. Plate movements also cause the folding, faulting and uplift of the crust that move rocks through the rock cycle.

sources: wikapedia, Harmonybaddie on    

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