Rocks & Minerals
The three main types of rocks.
What are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic?
A body of moving water formed when many small streams/tributaries merge; drain into lakes or oceans.
What is a river?
Characterized by violent shaking of the Earth's surface caused by the release of crustal tension through faulting (elastic rebound theory). Point of greatest surface shaking is known as the epicenter, while the point of origin is the hypocenter.
What is an earthquake?
The largest of the world's oceans.
What is the Pacific Ocean?
The number of planets in our solar system.
What is 8?
The most common mineral of the earth's crust, with chemical formula SiO2.
What is quartz?
A relatively flat area of land (with at least one steep side) formed by uplift and erosion, typically of sedimentary rock; intermediate in size between a butte and a plateau.
What is a mesa?
Characterized by the rapid inundation of land with water, often due to extreme rainfall. Increased likelihood on impermeable surfaces (e.g. roads & pavement).
What is a flash flood?
This location hosts the deepest point of Earth's surface.
What is the Mariana Trench/Challenger Deep?
An intrusive, felsic igneous rock containing many interlocking crystal grains; predominantly pink or white in color. Commonly used in construction and countertops.
What is granite?
A large igneous formation resulting from many neighboring plutons becoming exposed at the earth's surface due to erosion and uplift.
What is a batholith?
A fast-rotating column of wind most commonly found in its namesake "alley" in the midwestern United States. It's strength is measured using the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
What is a tornado?
These three ions are the most common in seawater.
What are Na+, Cl-, and SO42-?
This theory posits that the universe originally began as an infinitesimal singularity, which expanded and cooled to form everything that exists today.
What is the Big Bang Theory?
The processes by which loose sediment becomes sedimentary rock (hint: occurs when sediment is pressurized by the weight of overlying rock).
What are compaction and cementation?
These glacial lakes are formed by the erosion of mountainous peaks, characterized by bowl-shaped depressions.
What is a cirque?
A fast-moving, dense mudflow formed when heavy rains suspend pyroclastic/volcanic ash and debris.
What is a lahar?
This depth is the level at which calcium carbonate suspended in the ocean begins to dissolve. Calcareous sediment is therefore unable to accumulate under this level.
What is the Carbonate Compensation Depth (CCD)?
This moon of Saturn is the only other known astronomical body (besides Earth) to exhibit weather cycles analogous to the water cycle?
What is Titan?
An intrusive, ultramafic rock that is the most common rock in the earth's mantle. Very dense and characteristically green in color.
What is peridotite?
These mushroom-shaped rock formations are found in dry regions when weaker rock at their base is eroded by sand-laden winds.
What are yardangs?
This mass wasting process occurs when sediment is inundated with water, weakening its base until it flows downslope. It leaves behind characteristically curved scarps/surfaces.
What are slumps?
This type of oceanic sediment is derived from fallen meteorites that landed in the ocean. They often exhibit an aerodynamic shape due to air resistance experienced as they passed through the atmosphere.
What are tektites?
These ripples in spacetime are observed when two massive astronomical bodies revolve around one another, and are detected at observatories like LIGO.
What is a gravitational wave?