Layers and Plates
Which physical layer of Earth is relatively thin, cool, and rigid?
What class of minerals makes up the majority of rocks on Earth?
Silly Cat Minerals (also acceptable: Silicate Minerals)
Where DON'T magmas form?
On Earth's surface
What plate tectonic boundary is not associated with volcanism?
Transform boundaries (also accepted: continent collision boundaries)
What solidified material is the main ingredient in organic sedimentary rocks?
Hydrocarbons
What type of plate boundary is associated with megathrust earthquakes and volcanic arcs?
Subduction (convergent)
Which two elements make up about 75% of the continental crust?
Silicon and oxygen
What is the extrusive/volcanic equivalent of granite?
Rhyolite
What volcanic hazard is also a type of mass wasting?
Lahars
What feature of clastic sedimentary rocks provides a record of depositional environment?
Grain size
What mechanisms drive the movement of lithospheric plates?
Mantle convection and gravity
How are rocks distinguished from minerals?
Rocks are aggregates or mixtures of one or more minerals
What determines igneous rock composition?
Plate tectonic setting
What type of volcano can erupt the entire range of igneous compositions, from mafic to felsic?
Stratovolcanoes (also accepted: composite cones)
What depositional environment is associated with cross-bedded sedimentary structures?
Desert dune fields
Which geologic theory suggests that changes in Earth's crust occur over long periods as the result of continuous and uniform processes?
Uniformitarianism
What is the dominant control of a mineral's physical properties?
type of moolecular bonds (also acceptable: type of molecular bonds)
What causes melting at divergent boundaries?
Decompression
What type of volcanic eruption has been a contributor/cause of multiple mass extinctions?
Flood basalts
Which clastic sedimentary rocks have the largest particle size (visible to the naked eye) and the highest transport energy?
Conglomerate and/or breccia
Which of Earth's interrelated spheres contributes to the color of terrestrial rocks and minerals through oxidation?
Atmosphere
Which part of the atom is directly involved in bonding with other atoms?
Outer shell electrons (valence electrons)
What type of magma differentiation involves the shift from mafic to felsic magma compositions due to crystallization?
Fractional crystallization
What magma generation mechanism is the cause of volcanism in volcanic arcs (ex: Cascade range)?
Flux melting
Due to its low resistance to weathering, which mineral is the least likely to be preserved in sedimentary environments?
Olivine