Rock Types & Formation
This type of rock is formed when magma or lava cools and hardens.
What is igneous rock?
When rocks are broken down into smaller pieces by wind, water, and ice, this process is called...
What is weathering?
When water freezes in cracks in rocks and expands, breaking the rock, this is an example of what type of weathering?
What is physical or mechanical weathering?
This layer of the Earth is made of very hot, dense rock that flows very slowly.
What is the mantle?
This type of fossil is formed when a living thing is completely preserved, like an insect in amber.
What is a preserved fossil?
This is the name for melted rock found inside the Earth.
What is magma?
When eroded sediments settle down in a new location, this process is called...
What is deposition?
When rain mixes with pollution to form acid rain, and the acid dissolves rocks, this is an example of what type of weathering?
What is chemical weathering?
This layer is made of liquid iron and nickel, and its movement creates Earth's magnetic field.
What is the outer core?
This type of fossil is a hollow space left in rock after an organism decays, showing its shape.
What is a mold fossil?
Give an example of an igneous rock formed from lava that cooled quickly.
What is obsidian or basalt?
Sedimentary rock can become metamorphic rock through these two main processes.
What are heat and pressure?
The piles of sediment that glaciers leave behind when they melt are called this.
What are moraines?
When two plates move away from each other, it's called this type of boundary.
What is a divergent boundary?
Name two types of trace fossils?
What are footprints, burrows, or coprolites (fossilized dung)?
This type of igneous rock has large crystals because it cooled slowly deep inside the Earth.
What is granite?
This force helps transport sediments during erosion, moving them downhill.
What is gravity?
Name two actions humans can take that increase erosion.
What are deforestation, improper farming practices, or building roads on unstable slopes?
What is a subduction zone, and what happens there?
What is an area where one tectonic plate slides underneath another plate, often leading to volcanoes and trenches?
Question: What is the difference between relative age and absolute age when dating rocks?
What is relative age tells us if something is older or younger than something else, while absolute age gives us a numerical age (like in years)?
Besides heat and pressure, what other factor can lead to the formation of metamorphic rocks?
What are chemical changes from hot liquids or gases?
Imagine a volcanic eruption. Explain how the rock cycle continues after the eruption.
What is the lava cools to form igneous rock, which can then be weathered, eroded, and become sedimentary or metamorphic rock?
How do plant roots act as a form of physical weathering?
What is by growing into cracks in rocks and forcing them apart?
What is a mid-ocean ridge, and what type of plate boundary forms it?
What is an underwater mountain range formed at a divergent plate boundary?
This is the scientific study of the Earth's physical structure, substance, history, and the processes that act on it.
What is geology?