Many people might know about the life cycle of a rock, but it can be a process that is hard to understand without a handy visual aid. Just such a series of aids can be found right here, courtesy of Mark Francek of Central Michigan University. These rock cycle animations display some of the most common rock-forming processes, including the crystallization of magma to form igneous rock, rock erosion to create sediment, and several others. That's not all, as visitors can also examine a comprehensive Flash animation which contains three separate movies, each of which looks at the formation of igneous rocks in environments that include a deep magma chamber and rocks forming from a pyroclastic flow. The site is rounded out by an interactive igneous rocks classification chart, arranged by texture and chemical composition.