Planet Earth

Question 1

What is a rock?

Answer 1

Rocks are naturally occuring solids made up of minerals

Question 2

What are the 3 types of rocks?

Answer 2

Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic

Question 3

What are minerals?

Answer 3

Non-living crystalline materials

Question 4

What are the 6 ways we identify minerals?

Answer 4

Colour, Hardness, Cleavage vs. Fracture, Streak, Lustre, and Transparency

Question 5

What is Moh’s Hardness Scale?

Answer 5

A scale with 10 values of hardness

Question 6

What is the softest mineral and what is its number?

Answer 6

Talc = 1

Question 7

What is the hardest mineral and what is its number?

Answer 7

Diamond = 10

Question 8

What does it mean for something to be transparent?

Answer 8

Light passes through completely

Question 9

What does it mean for something to be translucent?

Answer 9

Colours pass through but it’s foggy

Question 10

What does it mean for something to be opaque?

Answer 10

No light passes through

Question 11

Describe cleavage

Answer 11

Clean, smooth, straight lines

Question 12

Describe fracture

Answer 12

Bumpy and uneven

Question 13

What is an aftershock?

Answer 13

Aftershocks are smaller secondary waves

Question 14

What is lustre?

Answer 14

Lustre refers to the shininess of the mineral. A mineral can have metallic and non-metallic lustre

Question 15

Is colour helpful when trying to identify minerals? Why or why not?

Answer 15

Colour is the least helpful when trying to identify minerals. This is because gems can have the same colour

Question 16

What is a streak?

Answer 16

A streak is the colour of the powder that is left behind when a mineral is rubbed across a streak plate

Question 17

What is cleavage or fracture?

Answer 17

The way a mineral breaks apart

Question 18

When is igneous rock formed?

Answer 18

It is formed when hot magma or lava cools and solidifies

Question 19

What is intrusive rock?

Answer 19

Cooled magma below the surface

Question 20

What is extrusive rock?

Answer 20

Rock that forms when lava cools above the surface

Question 21

When is sedimentary rock formed?

Answer 21

It is formed when sediment is layered and compacted by pressure above it

Question 22

What is sediment?

Answer 22

Loose rock, minerals, plant and animal remains

Question 23

What is compaction?

Answer 23

Making something more dense and solid by using pressure

Question 24

What is cementation?

Answer 24

The process where minerals that dissolve make natural cement that glues them together

Question 25

What is stratification?

Answer 25

The formation of strata in rocks

Question 26

What are crystals?

Answer 26

Crystals are the building blocks of minerals

Question 27

What is metamorphic rock? Where is it formed and in what conditions?

Answer 27

A type of rock that has changed its form. It is formed below the Earth's surface by extreme pressure and heat

Question 28

What is the rock cycle?

Answer 28

How each rock type can transform into one another

Question 29

What is erosion?

Answer 29

The movement of rock and mineral grains from one place to another

Question 30

What is the crust?

Answer 30

The top layer of the earth. (Literally the surface we live on)

Question 31

How do earthquakes travel?

Answer 31

Earthquakes travel in waves

Question 32

What is Pangea?

Answer 32

A supercontinent where all of the current continents were once joined together

Question 33

What is the difference between magma and lava?

Answer 33

Magma is molten rock that exists below the Earth's surface, while lava is magma that has erupted onto the Earth's surface

Question 34

What are petrified fossils?

Answer 34

Petrified - Turned to stone

Question 35

What are trace fossils?

Answer 35

Trace - Evidence of species activity NOT PARTS

Question 36

Explain mold and cast

Answer 36

Mold and Cast - Remains get covered, but the remains dissolve, this leaves a hole (mold). Sediment minerals fill the mold making a copy (cast).

Question 37

What is the Theory of Plate Tectonics?

Answer 37

That the continents themselves are not moving, the plates that they are on are

Question 38

What is the focus?

Answer 38

Focus - Where earthquakes start (underground)

Question 39

What is the epicentre?

Answer 39

Epicentre - Where surface waves come from (on the surface)

Question 40

What device is used to record earthquakes?

Answer 40

A seismograph

Question 41

What is mechanical weathering and what causes it?

Answer 41

Using physical forces to break rocks. Caused by wind, gravity, and water

Question 42

What is chemical weathering and what causes it?

Answer 42

Using chemicals to break rocks. Caused by acid rain, water, and rust

Question 43

What is biological weathering and what causes it?

Answer 43

Using living things to break rocks. Caused by plants, roots, and animals

Question 44

What are the layers of the Earth and what are their states?

Answer 44

Crust - Solid Upper Mantle - Solid Lower Mantle - Partially melted Outer Core - Liquid Inner Core - Solid

Question 45

What is a dormant volcano?

Answer 45

A volcano that has not erupted in a long time but is expected to erupt again in the future

Question 46

What is strata?

Answer 46

Strata refers to the layers of sedimentary rock

Question 47

What are surface waves?

Answer 47

Seismic waves that travel along the Earth's surface, like ripples on water. It is the slowest, yet most destructive

Question 48

What are preserved remains?

Answer 48

Preserved Remains - The original body that was not destroyed

Question 49

What is weathering?

Answer 49

The breakdown of rock into sediment

Question 50

What causes erosion?

Answer 50

Wind, water, glaciers, gravity, frost wedging, and organisms

Question 51

What are seismic waves?

Answer 51

Seismic waves are the energy waves that travel outward from the source of the earthquake

Question 52

What is frost wedging?

Answer 52

A type of physical weathering where water seeps into cracks in rocks and expands upon freezing, widening the cracks and ultimately breaking the rock apart

Question 53

What is a half-life?

Answer 53

A half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of a sample to decompose

Question 54

What do seismologists do and what tools do they use?

Answer 54

Seismologists study earthquakes and seismic waves. They also use a device called a seismograph to record the intensity of an earthquake