Rocks and Minerals
These are the three main categories of rocks, classified by how they form.
What are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks?
This type of stress occurs when tectonic forces pull rock masses apart.
What is tension / tensional stress?
What are glaciers?
This process breaks down rocks at or near Earth's surface, changing their shape and size.
What is weathering?
This term describes the long-term atmospheric conditions and weather patterns of a certain area, typically measured over decades.
What is climate?
This type of rock forms when magma or lava cools and solidifies.
What is igneous rock?
This type of deformation permanently changes the shape of rock, even after the force is removed.
What is plastic deformation?
This is the land area that collects and drains water into a particular stream or river.
What is a drainage basin?
This process transports rock and sediment away from its original location, usually via gravity.
What is erosion?
This is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, where most weather occurs.
What is the troposphere?
DAILY DOUBLE!
This mineral property describes resistance to scratching.
This type of fault involves rock masses sliding past one another both horizontally and vertically.
What is an oblique fault?
These underground formations store groundwater and typically have high porosity and permeability.
What are aquifers?
Of the three types of weathering we covered, this type occurs when carbonic acid in rainwater changes the chemical composition of minerals in rock.
What is chemical weathering?
This atmospheric property is among the six main elements of weather and describes the amount of water vapor in the air.
What is humidity?
This type of rock forms from existing rock types, when they're transformed by heat and pressure.
What is metamorphic rock?
This type of fold bends rock layers upward into an arch, with the oldest layers at the center.
What is an anticline?
DAILY DOUBLE!
This process occurs when excess nutrients cause rapid algal growth, followed by declining dissolved oxygen as algae decompose.
Of the three types of weather we covered, this type occurs when expanding ice in rock cracks causes the rock to break apart.
What is physical/mechanical weathering?
These two days of the year occur in spring and fall when daylight and nighttime are approximately equal in length.
What are the equinoxes?
This mineral property describes the tendency to break along flat planes of weakness in its crystal structure.
What is cleavage?
This type of volcanism occurs when hot mantle material rises beneath a tectonic plate, forming volcanic features such as the Hawaiian Islands.
What is hot spot volcanism?
These two properties primarily determine the density of ocean water.
What are salinity and temperature?
This process causes different rock layers to erode at different rates, sometimes producing natural arches and bridges.
What is differential weathering?
This layer of the atmosphere contains most of Earth's ozone, which absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation.
What is the stratosphere?