Rocks and Minerals
This naturally occurring, nonliving solid with a definite chemical composition is the basic building block of rocks.
What is a mineral?
This process breaks rocks into smaller pieces without moving them.
What is weathering?
This is the thinnest and coolest layer of Earth and includes the continents and ocean floor.
What is the crust?
Materials that occur in nature and are used by humans are called these.
What are natural resources?
Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that trap heat in the atmosphere are called these.
What are greenhouse gases?
This property of a mineral is tested by scratching it to see if it can scratch another mineral.
What is hardness?
Water, wind, ice, and gravity are examples of these forces that move sediment.
What are agents of erosion?
This movement of heat in the mantle causes tectonic plates to move.
What are convection currents?
Wind, solar, and hydroelectric power are examples of this type of energy resource.
What are renewable resources?
Scientists use temperature data over time to show this trend occurring on Earth.
What is global warming?
The color of a mineral’s powder left behind when it is rubbed on a plate shows this property.
What is streak?
This type of weathering occurs when ice freezes in cracks, expands, and breaks rock apart.
What is mechanical (physical) weathering?
This type of plate boundary forms when two plates move away from each other, often creating new crust.
What is a divergent boundary?
Coal, oil, and natural gas are examples of this type of energy resource that cannot be replaced quickly.
What are nonrenewable resources?
Burning fossil fuels contributes to increased levels of this gas in the atmosphere.
What is carbon dioxide?
Rocks formed from compacted and cemented sediments are classified as this type of rock.
What are sedimentary rocks?
Sediment dropped by moving water forms land features in these environments, such as deltas and beaches.
What are environments of deposition?
Fossils found on different continents help scientists support claims about changes in Earth’s surface and this factor.
What is climate?
This renewable resource uses heat from inside Earth to generate energy.
What is geothermal energy?
Protecting water, soil, and air for future generations is an example of this practice.
What is conservation (or sustainability)?
This model explains how igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks change over time through weathering, erosion, heat, and pressure.
What is the rock cycle?
Soil forms as a result of weathered rock layers mixed with decomposed organic material, also known as this.
What is humus?
Scientists use radioactive dating, rock layers, and meteorites to determine this major scientific conclusion.
What is the age of Earth?
This nonrenewable resource uses uranium and produces energy through nuclear reactions rather than combustion.
What is nuclear energy?
Using evidence from graphs and maps, scientists argue that human activity has contributed to this environmental change.
What is the rise in global temperatures over the past century?