Geopardy

The Rock Cycle

100

This process describes the order in which common silicate minerals crystallize in a cooling magma. As the temperature cools, the igneous rocks go from mafic (Mg/Fe-rich) to felsic (Si-rich). Crystal structures become more complex, moving from an independent tetrahedra structure to a framework silicate structure.

What is Bowen's Reaction Series/Fractional Crystallization?

200

In the Rock Cycle diagram, metamorphic rocks become igneous rocks through melting. Igneous rocks become sedimentary rocks through erosion and deposition. To complete the cycle, these two processes transform sedimentary rocks into metamorphic rocks.

What are Burial and Heating?

300

This sedimentary rock consists of randomly oriented, large angular rock clasts. It has a fine-grain matrix composed of various minerals cemented together and is poorly sorted. Possible depositional environments include alluvial fans, rivers, and glaciers.

What is Breccia?

400

Along with quartz and biotite, this mineral is found in the igneous rock granite. It has a pink/white color, a pearly luster, and two cleavage planes at 90°.

What is K-Feldspar?

500

These two minerals are examples of polymorphs—minerals with the same chemical formula but different crystal structures. Both minerals have the chemical formula (C), yet, one is composed of strong covalent bonds, while the other is composed of both strong covalent bonds and weak Van der Waals' bonds.

What are Diamond and Graphite?

Stream Erosion

100

This is the lowest elevation a stream channel floor can reach and erode, often due to a decrease in a stream’s velocity and loss of competency. Examples include a local dam and the ocean

What is Base Level?

200

Stream gauges often measure the water level (stand) and velocity of a stream in order to create a rating curve to analyze how a stream will react to rain storms and other changes in measurement. The measurement of how much water a stream transports -- often referred to as “Q” -- is typically measured in the following units.

What is ft^3/second or m^3/second?

300

In our trip to the Quechee Gorge, we were able to identify the metamorphic rock phyllite based on the presence of foliation, remnants of bedding, and this shiny, plated metamorphic index mineral.

What is Muscovite?

400

In our trip to the Quechee Gorge, we observed an igneous rock formation that may have impacted the trajectory of the stream. This is an extrusive, porphyritic rock that was likely erupted from a volcanic dike.

What is Basalt?

500

Streams generally transport sediment load through three processes. In the first process, dissolved load, streams transport ions (e.g. rock salts). In the second process, suspended load, small clays, silts and sands are moved down the river channel. This final process uses saltation to move larger sediments at the bottom of streams.

What is Bedload?

Erosional and Depositional Features of Glaciers

100

While the accumulation zone is the part of the glacier above the equilibrium line that experiences precipitation, this area lies below the equilibrium line on a glacier and experiences evaporation and sublimation.

What is the Ablation Zone?

200

This phenomenon, in which rocks are found with a different lithology than those native to the area they are rested in, is evidence of transportation by a glacier in the past.

What are Erratics?

300

These layers consisting of a light band composed of coarse sand and silt and a dark band composed of fine clay map annual deposits into pro-glacial lakes from glaciers. They allow us to determine the chronology of glacial sediments.

What are Varves?

400

A crag is a resistant rock formation, generally made up of this type of mineral, which resists glacial erosion and leaves a protective shadow behind it. This mineral is glassy, fractures conchoidally, has a clear color, and a hardness of 7.

What is Quartz?

500

This system cuts off Antarctica from the rest of the world and keeps out warm ocean currents, thereby protecting the ice sheet from melting and calving.

What is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current?

Earthquakes

100

The Richter Scale measures the amplitude of ground motion 100 km from the epicenter. Each step represents an approximate 30x increase in energy from the previous step. This other form of measurement, based on eyewitness damage, assigns a number from I to VII to rate the severity of an earthquake.

What is the Mercalli Intensity Scale?

200

These body waves come in two forms and travel through the interior of the Earth. The first waves travel at 6-8 km/sec and are compressional. The second waves travel at 3-4 km/sec and are shear. The difference between the arrival times of these two waves at seismographs is used to determine the epicenters of earthquakes.

What are P-waves and S-waves?

300

Waves traveling through the interior of the Earth refract towards the boundary of materials with high density and refract away from materials with lower density. When a wave passes from the crust to the mantle, the presence of this dense rock causes the wave to refract towards the mantle.

What is Peridotite?

400

The density, rigidity, and compressibility of the material an earthquake travels through affects what characteristic of a seismic wave?

What is a seismic wave’s speed?

500

In an elastic deformation, strain is reversible and no breaking occurs. In a plastic deformation, strain is irreversible and no breaking occurs. In this final type of deformation, strain is irreversible and breaking occurs.

What is Brittle Deformation?

Earth's Energy

100

This fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of clay, quartz, some iron-oxides and organic-rich material that resides at depth, is the source rock for oil and has low porosity and permeability.

What is Black Shale?

200

This unconventional form of oil/gas extraction involves injecting large quantities of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into drilled wells to crack the surrounding rock layer (often shale) to allow the natural gas from the source rock to flow upwards.

What is Hydraulic Fracturing?

300

This source of energy is a carbon-rich sedimentary rock that originates as terrestrial vegetation in swamps and is eventually buried by sediment, compacted, and dangerously mined at depth.

What is Coal?

400

This environmental issue associated with “fracking” can arise as a result of spills, faulty well construction, or disposal into underground injection wells close to water wells.

What is contamination of groundwater/aquifers?

500

This unconventional oil is either loose sand or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, saturated with a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum, and is found in large quantities in Canada.

What is Tar Sand? (Also acceptable: What is Oil/Bituminous Sand?)