Rock Types
What are the three main types of rock?
Igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic.
What is stress?
A force that pushes, pulls, or squeezes rocks.
What is physical weathering?
Physical actions, such as wind, or water freezing and cracking a rock.
Why do engineers need to know about rocks?
To build safe and strong bridges, roads, and tunnels.
What is the name of the famous ancient circular rock monument in England?
Which type of rock is made from layers of sediment that are compacted and cemented together?
Sedimentary rock.
What is compressional stress?
Compressional stress is stress that pushes two rocks together.
List the three main types of weathering.
Physical, chemical, and biological.
What kind of engineer is responsible for making sure a bridge is correctly designed and built.
What is the name of an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, formed by an ancient volcanic fissure eruption.
Giants Causeway in Ireland.
How is metamorphic rock formed?
Existing rock changed by heat and/or pressure.
When does shear stress occur?
This occurs between two rocks when one is being pushed in one direction and the other is being pulled in the opposite direction.
How does biological weathering occur?
What kind of engineer focuses on learning about the Earth?
Which famous rock is mostly made of basalt, a dark, fine-grained volcanic rock. Formed roughly 15 to 17 million years ago, this monolithic sea stack was created by massive lava flows that erupted in eastern Washington and flowed to the Pacific Ocean,
Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon,
Hardened lava.
What is tensional stress?
Tensional stress is stress that pulls two rocks apart.
Wind blowing sand against a rock is an example of what type of weathering?
Give and example of how an engineer's mistake involving rocks could harm people.
If an engineer did not learn about the rocks supporting their bridge foundation, and design and build the bridge appropriately, the bridge could break or collapse.
What is is a 32-million-year-old, 15–18 meter high basalt sea stack located along the Stanley Park seawall in Vancouver. Known to the Squamish people as Slhx̱í7lsh (meaning "standing man").
Siwash rock.
Which two types of rock are generally considered the strongest?
Igneous and metamorphic.
What kind of stress often causes earthquakes in BC?
Tree roots growing into rock cracks and splitting the rock is an example of what type of weathering.
Biological weathering.
What are things an engineer must take into consideration before building a dam.
Rock sizes, location, and type; weathering and erosion; how much water will flow to and through the dam; size of the dam; cost; safety issues; electricity generated; effects on the fish and wildlife around the dam, and upstream and downstream; how much land will be flooded; how many people and/or businesses will have to move and/or be affected; how long it will take to build; what it will cost to maintain it.
What is the main type of rock found around Rocky Point Park?
Metamorphic rock (schist or gneiss).