Earth Science Term Review

Rocks/Minerals

100

This material is made up of one or more minerals

What is a rock?

200

This characteristic of minerals is measured by shining a light and looking for sparkles

What is luster?

300

This type of rock is made from intense heat and pressure

What is metamorphic rock?

400

This type of rock is made from the cooling of lava or magma

What is igneous rock?

500

This process involves a rock eroding while keeping its original chemical make-up

What is mechanical weathering?

Volcanoes

100

This type of secondary volcano is formed when debris falls back down around its vent 

What is a cinder cone?

200

This type of primary volcano is formed by continuous, small eruptions of mafic lava

What is a shield volcano?

300

This term describes how thick a liquid-like substance is

What is viscosity? 

400

This type of lava is the most explosive

What is felsic lava?

500

This plate interaction is the cause of most volcanoes

What is a convergent plate boundary?

Tectonic Plates

100

This plate boundary occurs when two plates slide past one another

What is a transform plate boundary?

200

This plate boundary occurs when two plates pull apart from one another

What is a divergent plate boundary?

300

This process is the source of plate movement

What are convection currents?

400

This plate boundary is the cause of earthquakes

What is a transform plate boundary?

500

This plate boundary causes mid-ocean ridges

What is a divergent plate boundary?

Fossils

100

This fossil forms when an organism's remains are turned to stone

What is a petrified fossil?

200

This type of fossil is formed when large portions of an organism is perfectly preserved

What are preserved remains?

300

This type of fossil is formed when sediment fills up a mold

What is a cast fossil?

400

These are fossils that show an organism was once there, but are not of the organism itself

What are trace fossils?

500

This fossil is formed when the only remains of an organism are thin layers of carbon

What is a carbon film?

Geologic Dating

100

This is the type of dating that uses isotopes

What is radiometric dating?

200

A term used to describe the age of a sample that has 50% of its original material and 50% decayed material

What is one half-life?

300

This is the number of half-lives a sample has encountered if only 25% of its original material remains

What is two half-lives?

400

These structures can cut through layers of rock at an angle and are younger than the surrounding rock

What are magma dikes?

500

This principle states that layers of rock are deposited horizontally

What is the principle of original horizontality?