Materials

Gneiss

NICE (rhymes with ice)

Metamorphic Rock

Citation Formats

General Reference

Earth and Environment Atlas. "Gneiss." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/gneiss.

APA Style

Earth and Environment Atlas. (n.d.). Gneiss. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/gneiss

BibTeX

@misc{earthandenvironmentatlas-gneiss,
  author = {Earth and Environment Atlas},
  title = {Gneiss},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/gneiss},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A high grade metamorphic rock recognizable by its banding, alternating light and dark mineral layers formed as intense heat and pressure separated its minerals during recrystallization. Some of the oldest known rocks on Earth are gneisses.

Facts

Kind

Rock 1

Formation Class

Metamorphic, high grade, formed by subjecting an older igneous or sedimentary rock to intense heat and pressure 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

In Discipline

Geology

Source Rock, Geology (Wikipedia)

Sources

1. Rock, Geology (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationView the Source

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