Basic Vocab
The branch of science that deals with the earth's physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it.
What is Geology?
A type of map that represents elevation and geographic positions for natural and man-made features on Earth's surface.
Type of rock that is formed when magma cools and solidifies.
What is an igneous rock?
Earth's outer shell (lithosphere) is divided into several plates that glide over the Earth's rocky inner layer above the soft core (mantle).
What is the theory of plate tectonics?
A comparative scale of mineral hardness that assigns numbers 1-10 to describe hardness, 10 being the hardest and 1 being the softest.
What is the Moh's hardness scale?
A mass that is made of a mixture of one or more minerals; any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter.
What is a rock?
A type of sample taken by a specialized drill. It is typically a cylindrical sample of dirt, rocks, and other things below the surface.
What is a core sample?
Type of rock that is formed from sediments.
What is a sedimentary rock?
The principle that states that younger layers of rock and sediment are on top of older layers.
What is superposition?
A qualitative mineral test that is based on observations of the mineral's surface. This is the most common, yet least reliable, mineral test.
What is the color test?
A naturally occurring solid substance with distinctive chemical and physical properties, composition, and atomic structure; makes rocks.
What is a mineral?
A type of map that represent the distribution of different types of rock and surficial deposits, as well as locations of geologic structures such as faults and folds.
What is a geologic map?
Type of rock that is formed when other rocks are exposed to heat and pressure.
What is a metamorphic rock?
The study of how Earth's layers are formed.
What is stratigraphy?
A qualitative test based on observations of the mineral in normal light.
What is the luster test?
Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
What are the 3 types of rocks?
Measurements made in wells using electrical graphs that give information about sequences of beds and structural features far below the Earth's surface.
What are well logs?
Two types of igneous rock. One is formed on Earth's surface, the other is formed below Earth's surface.
What are extrusive and intrusive rocks?
The study of how rocks are folded, broken, or faulted; how layers change.
What is structural geology?
The weight of a substance (mineral in this case) compared with the weight of an equal amount of water.
What is specific gravity?
Superposition, stratigraphy, and structural geology.
What are some geologic principles?
A geophysical imaging technique that is used to make pictures of the geology below the Earth's surface.
What is reflection seismology?
Two types of metamorphic rocks. One is layered and the other is not layered.
What are foliated and non-foliated rocks?
The assumption that present-day processes have operated throughout geologic time.
What is uniformitarianism?
This test is conducted by striking a mineral sample so that it breaks and analyzing the shapes of the broken pieces.
What is the fracture and cleavage test?