Solved cryptogram

Metamorphic rock is remade by heat and pressure without melting. Melting would erase it.

Earth Science Facts, sourced to U.S. Geological Survey.

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What it means

The word means changed in form, and the change happens while the rock stays solid. Minerals recrystallize, flatten and line up under pressure, which is why slate splits into sheets and why marble is denser and finer than the limestone it came from. Cross the melting point and the identity of the original rock is gone, so metamorphism runs in a band of temperature between burial and destruction.

The claim comes from U.S. Geological Survey.

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