Mineral Madness
What is the hardest mineral on the Mohs scale?
What is a diamond
What is the type of igneous rock that forms when lava cools at Earth’s surface?
What is extrusive rock?
What is the type of boundary where two plates move apart?
What is a divergent boundary?
What are the seismic waves that travel fastest and arrive first
What are P‑waves?
What is the type of rock formed by compaction and cementation of sediments?
What is sedimentary rock?
What is the mineral that effervesces when exposed to dilute hydrochloric acid?
What is Calcite
What is the igneous texture with large crystals in a fine‑grained matrix?
What is porphyritic texture?
What is the supercontinent that began breaking apart 200 million years ago?
What is Pangaea?
What are the seismic waves that cannot travel through liquids?
What are S‑waves?
What is the principle stating that younger layers are deposited atop older ones?
What is superposition?
What is the sheet silicate mineral known for its perfect basal cleavage and shiny plates?
What is mica
What is the ultramafic intrusive rock that commonly contains mantle xenoliths?
What is peridotite?
What is the force caused by the sinking lithosphere that drives plate motion?
What is slab pull?
What is the seismic discontinuity marking the crust‑mantle boundary?
What is the Moho?
What is the unconformity where tilted or folded rocks are overlain by horizontal layers?
What is an angular unconformity?
What is the mineral group that dominates Earth’s mantle and includes forsterite and fayalite?
What are olivines
What is the layer in a magma chamber formed by early‑crystallized minerals settling out?
What is cumulate layer?
What is the fault type where plates slide horizontally past one another?
What is a transform fault?
What is the geophysical method that measures variations in Earth’s gravitational field?
What is gravity surveying?
What is the radioactive decay method commonly used to date zircon crystals?
What is U‑Pb dating?
What is the mineral whose twinning and birefringence make it key in felsic thin‑section ID?
What is Plagioclase Feldspar
What is the process by which magma incorporates surrounding country rock, altering composition?
What is magmatic assimilation?
What is the dipping seismic zone marking a subducting slab?
What is the Wadati–Benioff zone?
What is the seismic behavior where waves bend due to velocity changes with depth?
What is refraction?
What is the boundary in the geologic time scale marking the mass extinction 66 million years ago?
What is the K–Pg boundary?