Are geologists discovering new types of rocks today? If so, what are the new classifications?
I don’t think we are discovering any new types of rocks on the earth’s surface anymore. But many geologists work on trying to reproduce the conditions (pressure and temperature) that exist in the earth’s mantle. We have never actually seen any rocks below earth’s crust, i.e. in the mantle, but we use indirect ways of studying them. Also, in some places parts of the earth’s upper mantle have been pushed up onto the continents. Soapstone Ridge in Atlanta is an example of this. Some geologists (geophysicists) use seismic methods (sound waves) and gravity measurements to give us ideas about what rocks might look like in the mantle. Other geologists (experimental petrologists) then try to artificially produce those rocks in the lab. So there are undoubtedly rocks making up the vast majority of the earth that we will probably never see directly. If we ever do, we will be discovering new rocks. One great place that geologists are discovering new types of rocks is on other planets. The rocks r
