Rocks are solid masses of naturally occurring geological and related materials of many sorts.Petrology is the branch of geology concerned with the compositions, structures, and origins of rocks.Petrology is the study of rocks - igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary - and the processes that form and transform them. It utilizes the classical fields of mineralogy, petrography, and chemical analyses to describe the structure and composition of rocks. In addition, modern petrologists include the principles of geochemistry and geophysics to better understand the origins of rocks.Mineralogy is the study of the chemistry, crystal structure and physical properties of the mineral constituents of rocks. Both petrological and mineralogical processes are sensitive to environmental conditions, so the compositions of rocks, and the minerals they consist of, are interrogated to answer fundamental questions across a wide range of geological disciplines.
