Tasa Graphic Arts (http://www.tasagraphicarts.com) has announced Earth’s Rocks and the Rock Cycle, a new Earth science app available for Mac OS X.

It provides teachers, students, and parents with Earth science content about rocks and the rock cycle. Photographs of rocks and their environments plus animations are designed to help students visualize the processes that change Earth over time. Scored quizzes and essay questions are included to encourage exploration, independent study, and written communication.

Users can use what they’ve learned about composition, texture, and color to identify rocks. Animations show the geologic processes in action: volcanic eruptions, flowing lava, weathering of rocks, streams transporting sediment, glaciers moving, caverns being formed by water, rocks being deformed by intense heat and pressure deep underground.

Earth’s Rocks and the Rock Cycle costs US$7.99. It’s available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Education category.