Layers of the Earth
Earth's layer that is broken into several plates.
What is the lithosphere?
Sudden release of strain along a fault or plate boundary.
What is an earthquake?
Location of deadly earthquake and related fire in 1906.
What is San Francisco?
Magma that reaches the Earth's surface.
What is lava?
A potentially dangerous hot spot centered in Wyoming, and home to "Old Faithful".
What is Yellowstone?
4.6 billion years
What is the estimated age of the Earth?
A solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form
What is a mineral?
Common felsic rock with phaneritic texture.
What is granite?
Layer of the earth that S waves can't pass through.
What is the outer core?
The San Andreas Fault occurs on this kind of plate boundary.
What is a transform fault?
Large ocean wave often caused by earthquakes.
What is a tsunami?
A volcano with alternating layers of ash and lava.
What is stratovolcano or composite cone?
Source of magma for Hawaiian volcanoes.
What is thermal plume or hotspot?
Age of other planets, the moon and meteorites
What are pieces of evidence for the age of the Earth?
Mineral breakage into distinct flat surfaces.
What is cleavage?
Common magic rock with an aphanitic texture.
What is basalt.
Layer of earth that is somewhat soft, but not completely melted. Convection currents occur here.
What is the mantle?
A boundary where two plates move away from one another forming a rift or spreading center.
What is a divergent boundary?
Likely caused by either (or both) a meteor impact or massive volcanic activity
What is the extinction of the dinosaurs?
An example of a shield volcano, with a very gently sloped cone.
What is Hawaii?
Very large volcanic crater formed from an explosive eruption.
What is a caldera?
Formed from debris torn from the Earth when a small planetoid collided with the Earth
What is the explanation for the formation of the moon?
The two main types of luster.
What are metallic and nonmetallic?
Ultramafic igneous rocks containing green peridotite.
What is peridotite?
This layer is liquid.
What is the outer core?
Three lines of evidence that led Alfred Wegener to believe that the continents are moving?
What is: 1. Fossil evidence (same plant/animal species found on different continents that now have different climates) 2. Continents are similar shapes that fit together like puzzle pieces (South America and Africa, for example) 3. Mountain ranges are made of the same rock layers on different continents (the Appalachian Mountains match a mountain range in Scotland, for example)
This makes lava more viscous and explosive.
What is silica?
An Arizona cinder cone volcano that erupted less than 1,000 years ago.
What is Sunset Crater?
A volcanic rock named for the Andes Mountains.
What is andesite?
Barringer Crater
What is the name of a 50,000 year old meteor crater in Northern Arizona?
The color of a mineral when powdered.
What is streak?
Igneous rocks with exceptionally large crystals, often associated with gemstones.
What is pegmatite?
Heat from this layer in the Earth drives convection.
What is the inner core?
The Marina Trench near Guam is an example of this type of convergent plate collision.
What is subduction?
A mix of water and debris flowing down from a volcano.
What is a lahar?
A type of volcanic rock that covers much of Central Arizona, with very long, fluid flows.
What is flood basalt?
Cascade Mountain Range volcano that erupted in 1980.
What is Mt. St. Helen's?
Composed of eight planets revolving around the sun.
What is our solar system?
The ability of a mineral to resist abrasion.
What is hardness?
Igneous texture with two distinct crystal sizes.
What is porphyritic?