metamorphic rock

Cultural  

1. Rock that was once one form of rock but has changed to another under the influence of heat, pressure, or some other agent without passing through a liquid phase.

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Examples are marble, which can be formed from limestone, and slate, which is formed from shale.

Example Sentences

It’s the sturdy metamorphic rock that underlies the Los Angeles Basin, “the bedrock of this whole area,” Coffey says.

From Los Angeles Times

But on other worlds, it’s more typical to find metamorphic rocks forged in the split-second shock of a meteoroid impact.

From National Geographic

The person with knowledge of the matter said that the group’s name derived from the metamorphic rock, signaling the group’s intent to be enduring and maintain a clarity of purpose.

From New York Times

Equipment designed for the softer, cooler sedimentary rock often found in oil fields falters in the extremes of hot, hard metamorphic rocks such as granite.

From Science Magazine

Marble, the metamorphic rock, embodied for me a dark paradox: It is change that produces changelessness.

From New York Times