Geology on Mars
Mars is nicknamed this because its surface is covered in Iron oxide (rust).
Name the three types of rock in the rock cycle.
Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic
This phase change occurs when a liquid gains enough energy for its particles to escape into the gas phase.
Evaporation (vaporization)
All matter is made up of extremely tiny particles called these — the building blocks of every substance.
Atoms (or molecules)
All matter is made up of what...
atoms
Mars's surface is covered with these bowl-shaped landforms created by space rocks crashing into the planet.
Impact craters
This type of rock forms when layers of sediment are pressed together and cemented over long periods of time.
Sedimentary rock
During this phase change, a gas loses energy, slows down, and becomes a liquid.
Condensation
This type of energy is stored energy — energy that has the potential to do work.
Potential energy
The nucleus of an atom is made up of what two subatomic particles?
Protons and Neutrons
This type of rock — formed when lava cools — is common on Mars and helps scientists understand its volcanic history.
Igneous rock (basalt)
Heat and pressure deep within Earth transform existing rock into this type WITHOUT melting it.
Metamorphic rock
This is the specific temperature at which a pure substance changes from a solid to a liquid.
Melting point
This is the TOTAL kinetic energy of all the particles in a substance, different from temperature which is just the AVERAGE.
Thermal energy (heat)
What kind of predator are sharks, bears, lions etc
Apex Predator
Ancient riverbeds, lake sediments, and minerals like hematite are evidence that Mars once had this on its surface.
Liquid water
This is the name for the continuous natural process by which rocks slowly change from one type to another through heat, pressure, weathering, and melting.
The rock cycle
During a phase change, temperature stays constant because the added or removed energy is being used to do THIS to the particles.
Break the forces holding particles together / change particle arrangement
When particles in a substance move faster and faster, this measurable property of the substance increases.
Temperature
This is the process by which one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, carrying rock deep into the mantle where it melts into magma.
Subduction
Unlike Earth, Mars does not appear to have this active geological process, which is why volcanoes there grew so enormous in one spot.
Plate tectonics
Weathering breaks rock down into smaller pieces, but this separate process moves and carries those pieces away to a new location.
Erosion — together, weathering and erosion are the first steps in forming sedimentary rock.
This phase change happens when a solid transforms directly into a gas, skipping the liquid phase entirely.
Sublimation
This phase change is the opposite of sublimation — a gas transforms directly into a solid without passing through the liquid phase.
Deposition
This is the term for energy that moves from a warmer object to a cooler one.
Heat / thermal energy transfer