General Earth Science Overview

What is the process that disintegrates or breaks rocks apart without changing their chemical composition?

What kind of weathering is caused by the expansion and contraction of rocks due to successive heating and cooling?

What is the process that causes many rocks to break due to the repeated freezing and melting of water within a small narrow crack or space in the rock surface?

What is the process of wearing away of rocks by constant collision of loose particles?

What kind of weathering is caused by plants and animals, including humans?

What type of weathering is the breakdown of rock by acidic water to produce clay and soluble salts?

What is the process of combining water with carbon dioxide to make carbonic acid?

The thinnest layer of the Earth is the mantle.

What is the thickest and largest layer of Earth, composed of very hot, dense rock?

What is the outer core of the Earth composed of?

What is the main reason why the interior of the Earth is hot?

What type of heating is caused by denser core material sinking to the center of the planet?

What is the process of decomposing of natural radioactive elements, particularly uranium, which produces heat and helps sustain the Earth's temperature?

Magma is molten material beneath or within the Earth's crust from which metamorphic rocks are formed.

What is the process by which magma gets out through the crust and crystallizes as an intrusive igneous rock beneath the Earth's surface?

What kind of rock is formed as a result of magmatism?

Rocks melt at a single temperature.

Wet melting occurs when minerals or rocks, with no carbon dioxide or water in them, are heated to a specific temperature.

The temperature at which wet melting occurs decreases with increased pressure or depth initially.

A partial melt can occur with both wet and dry melting of rocks, but cannot occur with minerals.

What is the process by which magma is transferred from the mantle to the lithosphere through convection currents?

What are the two main igneous processes that form igneous rocks?

What is the resistance to flow of magma?

High viscosity magma flows very rapidly.

Rift zones are areas where the volcano is erupting or ejecting lava.

Basaltic magma is formed through wet partial melting of the mantle.

Rhyolitic magma is formed as a result of dry melting of continental crust.

What is the process that creates and arranges rocks into the current landscape, driven by heat concealed within the Earth's interior?

What kind of intrusion is defined as an intrusion that formed at depths of less than 2 kilometers?

Xenoliths are fragments of rock that have been incorporated into another type of rock.

What is an intrusion of magma that wells up from below the surface?

Non-explosive eruptions are favored by low gas content and low viscosity magmas.

Explosive eruptions are favored by high gas content and low viscosity magmas.

What are the solid particles that result from explosive eruptions and cool as they fall through the air?

Hawaiian eruptions involve high-viscosity basaltic magma.

Strombolian eruptions involve distinct blasts of andesitic to rhyolitic magma.

What type of eruption occurs when magma contacts shallow groundwater?

What type of eruption occurs when magma encounters shallow groundwater and groundwater flashes to steam?

Metamorphism is the change that takes place within a body of rock as a result of it being subjected to conditions that are the same as those in which it formed.

What type of metamorphism occurs when magma comes in contact with an already existing body of rock?

What type of metamorphism occurs over a much larger area, caused by large geologic processes like mountain building?

What type of metamorphism occurs along fault zones during tectonic movement?

Metamorphic rocks typically have the same mineral assemblages and textures as their parent rocks.

Metamorphic changes typically occur in the temperature range of 100-400 degrees Celsius.

Uniform pressure acts vertically downwards, squeezing rocks and potentially leading to folds and a foliated texture.

Chemically active fluids play an important role in metamorphism, providing a medium for chemical reactions and inducing compositional changes in surrounding rocks.

The presence of magma is not essential for metamorphism to occur.

What is the process by which rocks are bent or crumpled, forming folds?

Folding typically occurs deep in the Earth's crust, where rock behavior is brittle.

What is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock, along which the opposite sides have moved relative to one another?

What type of fault occurs when the block above the inclined fault moves down?

What type of fault forms when the hanging wall moves up?

What type of fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks?

What type of fault occurs when two blocks slide past one another?

A left-lateral strike-slip fault occurs when the left block moves toward you and the right block moves away.

What type of fault combines strike-slip and dip-slip components of movement?

Myonites are rocks with fine-grained, cohesive, aligned minerals caused by shearing.

What is an ultrafine-grained glassy-looking fault rock formed by the frictional melting and rapid solidification of rocks during seismic faulting?

What is the process in which tectonic plates split apart from each other, resulting in the creation of new seafloor?

What is the process by which molten materials rise, causing sideways spreading of the seafloor?

The mid-ocean ridge is a feature found at the center of divergent boundaries.

What are the two types of continental margins?

Abyssal plains are extremely flat sediment-covered ocean floors, interrupted by occasional mostly extinct volcanoes called seamounts.

What is the process by which tectonic plates move toward each other, resulting in the destruction of crust?

Convergent boundaries are characterized by the creation of new seafloor.

What type of convergent boundary occurs when an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate?

What type of convergent boundary occurs when two oceanic plates collide?

What type of convergent boundary occurs when two continental plates collide?

Transform boundaries are characterized by the creation of new crust.

Transform faults are common along oceanic ridges, where they create zigzag plate margins.

What is the process by which magma from the mantle upwells through cracks in the crust, creating new seafloor?

What is a central valley that forms at the summit of oceanic ridges, where molten materials continuously flow out, pushing seafloor away?

What is the process by which tectonic plates slide horizontally past one another, creating zigzag plate margins and shallow earthquakes?

Subduction zones are formed by divergent boundaries.

What is one principle mechanism that drives the movement of tectonic plates?

What mechanism is when newly formed, warm oceanic plates at ridges have higher elevation, pushing them away from the divergent boundary?

What mechanism is when older, colder plates sink at subduction zones, pulling the rest of the plate behind due to increased density as they cool?

Convection currents occur only in the Earth's mantle.

Asthenospheric currents act like conveyor belts, moving the overlying lithosphere, with hot rock rising and eventually sinking back to the core.

The Proterozoic Eon is known as the age of visible life.

What is the process of physical and chemical breakdown of rocks?

What is the process of removal of sediments from their sources?

What is the process by which sediments are transported via water or wind?

What is the process by which sediments settle due to decreased energy?

What is the process by which sediments are lithified into sedimentary rocks?

Sedimentary rocks are always stratified.

Stratigraphy is the study of igneous rocks.

What is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil, or igneous rock that was formed at the Earth's surface?

What is the general term for layering in sedimentary rocks?

What is the term for layering in sedimentary rocks that are greater than 1 cm thick?

What is the term for layering in sedimentary rocks that are less than 1 cm thick?

Sedimentary rocks are always deposited in horizontal layers.

Cross-bedding is common in fluvial or aeolian deposits, where layers are at an angle to the main bedding plane.

What is the systematic change in grain or clast size across the bed, which is commonly observed in sedimentary rocks?

Geologic events leave evidence in the stratified layers of sedimentary rocks, providing insights into the past environment.

What is determining the age of something compared to something else, using words like "older" or "younger"?

What is determining the actual age of something, using methods like radiometric dating?

Isotopes are elements that have the same number of neutrons but different numbers of protons.

What are unstable isotopes that decay over time called?

What is the time it takes for half of a radioactive isotope to decay?

Radiometric dating is used to determine the actual age of rocks and minerals using the decay of stable isotopes.

Radioactive isotopes are only accurate if the mineral containing them has remained a closed system since its formation.

The Earth’s history is recorded in its rocks, and the rock record is complete and accurate.

The Precambrian Era is considered as part of the Phanerozoic Eon.

The Phanerozoic Eon is divided into three eras: Mesozoic, Paleozoic, and Cenozoic.

Index fossils are used in the formal structure of geologic time to define eons, eras, and periods.

The boundaries of some subdivisions in the geologic timescale are defined by the mass extinction events.

The Mesozoic Era is known as the “Age of Mammals”.

The Cenozoic Era is known as the “Age of Mammals”, which started with the appearance of land mammals and ended with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The Hadean Eon was considered as the ‘chaotic eon’ because it was a time of immense heat and volcanic activity.

The Archean Era is the period of Earth’s history that saw the formation of the first continents, the beginning of tectonic activity, and the development of the oceans.

The Proterozoic Eon was a time of major evolutionary changes, including the oxygenation of the atmosphere, the rise of eukaryotic life, and the emergence of multicellular animals.

The Paleozoic Era was characterized by the rise of reptiles, including dinosaurs, and the emergence of mammals.

The Mesozoic Era was characterized by the rise of mammals and the transition of some reptiles to mammals.

The Cenozoic Era is marked by the emergence of modern life, with the development of modern horses, birds, deciduous trees , and a diversity of mammals.

All fossils can be considered as index fossils.

Index fossils are used to define geologic time periods.

Index fossils are exclusive to certain regions and are not found widely distributed.

Index fossils have a relatively long geologic time range.

Index fossils can indicate the age of sedimentary rocks, but not igneous rocks.

The process of fossilization is often rapid, and only organisms that are buried quickly can be preserved as fossils.

Trilobites are a good example of index fossils, as they were common in the Paleozoic Era and had a wide geographical distribution.

Microscopic fossils are often used to determine the age of very fine-grained rocks, such as shales and mudstones.

The geologic time scale organizes Earth’s history into a hierarchical framework, ranging from the smallest units, ages, to the largest units, eons.

The Phanerozoic Eon is the eon of hidden life.