Rocks & Minerals
Formed from cooling magma, this rock type can be intrusive or extrusive.
What is igneous rock?
These currents in the mantle cause tectonic plates to move.
What are convection currents?
Triggered by undersea earthquakes, this wave grows taller as it nears shore.
What is a tsunami?
This document begins with the words “We the People.”
What is the U.S Constitution?
This step moves water into the soil after rainfall, feeding groundwater below.
What is infiltration?
This volcano erupted about 1000 years ago.
What is Sunset Crater?
Rotating thunderstorms with a violently spinning column.
What is a tornado?
This process moves sediment from one place to another.
What is erosion?
This boundary type destroys crust instead of creating it.
What is a convergent boundary?
This point underground is where an earthquake actually begins.
What is a focus?
This gas makes up most of Earth’s atmosphere, even though we don’t breathe it.
What is nitrogen?
This is the continuous movement of water on, above, and below Earth’s surface.
What is the water cycle?
Apache tears are made from this volcanic material.
What is obsidian?
Born from a collapsing thunderstorm, this towering front can erase the horizon.
What is a haboob?
These two processes turn sediment into sedimentary rock.
What are compaction and cementation?
This type of boundary neither creates nor destroys crust — it just slides by.
What is a transform boundary?
This volcanic material is so fast and hot it can flatten a town in minutes.
What is pyroclastic flow?
This continent is the only one in all four hemispheres.
What is Africa?
This process explains why deserts like Arizona can flood quickly after heavy rain because the hard ground cannot absorb water fast enough.
What is runoff?
This volcanic field in northern Arizona contains more than 600 volcanoes.
What are the San Francisco Peaks?
When the ground can’t absorb water fast enough, this dangerous event can sweep away roads, cars, and anything in its path.
What is a flash flood?
This type of rock forms from heat and pressure without melting.
What is metamorphic rock?
This supercontinent broke apart about 200 million years ago.
What is Pangaea?
Its gentle slopes come from lava that travels far before cooling, creating a shape more like a warrior’s armor than a mountain.
What is a shield volcano?
This figure of speech gives human traits to nonhuman things.
What is personification?
After a desert rainstorm, water disappears from the soil without ever boiling.
What is evaporation?
Wildfires left the soil unable to absorb water, worsening the 2025 Globe flash flood.
What is hydrophobic gound?
These storms need warm water, low wind shear, and the Atlantic basin to earn this name on the evening news.
What are hurricanes?
This type of weathering changes the chemical makeup of rock.
What is chemical weathering?
The San Andreas Fault is this type of boundary.
What is a transform boundary?
Arizona is far from the ocean, yet a massive quake along this nearby plate boundary could still send seismic waves into the state.
What is the San Andreas Fault?
This wizarding sport involves broomsticks, a golden ball, and way too many rulebooks.
What is Quidditch?
A river carves a canyon deeper each year as flowing water wears away rock, involving what spheres.
What are the hydrosphere and geosphere?
This volcanic plug is near Tucson.
What is Picacho Peak?
This storm gets its name when wind and whiteout join forces for hours.
What is a blizzard?