Rocks & Minerals
This is a shiny or colorful solid found in nature, made of one or more elements.
What is a mineral?
The Earth's outer shell is broken into pieces called these.
What are tectonic plates?
Fossils are most often found in this type of rock.
What is sedimentary rock?
This is the blanket of gases that surrounds Earth.
What is the atmosphere?
This is the star at the center of our solar system.
What is the Sun?
There are three main types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and this kind.
What is metamorphic?
When two plates push together, they can cause these ground-shaking events.
What are earthquakes?
Scientists use these remains of plants and animals to learn about Earth’s past.
What are fossils?
Water falls from the sky as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. This is called what?
What is precipitation?
The Moon orbits this planet.
What is Earth?
This kind of rock forms when lava or magma cools.
What is igneous rock?
The theory that continents move over time is called this.
What is continental drift?
Earth is about this many years old.
What is 4.5 billion years?
This large current keeps the Atlantic Ocean warmer.
What is the Gulf Stream?
Earth takes about this long to orbit the Sun.
What is one year (365 days)?
This test helps scientists figure out how hard a mineral is.
What is the Mohs hardness test?
This is where one plate sinks under another, forming trenches.
What is subduction?
This branch of science studies layers of rock to learn about Earth’s history.
What is geology (or stratigraphy)?
These are huge spinning storms that form over warm ocean water.
What are hurricanes?
These are space rocks that burn up in our atmosphere and look like shooting stars.
What are meteors?
This type of rock often has layers and may contain fossils.
What is sedimentary rock?
The place deep inside Earth that causes plates to move with heat and flow.
What is the mantle (or convection currents in the mantle)?
This long time period is when dinosaurs lived.
What is the Mesozoic Era? or the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous
This gas is needed by plants and is found in the air we breathe.
What is carbon dioxide?
These are the order of the eight planets that orbit our Sun.
What are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune?