Plate Tectonics
This German scientist first proposed the idea of continental drift in 1912.
Who is Alfred Wegener?
This mineral is the hardest on the Mohs hardness scale.
What is Diamond?
The “Age of Reptiles” refers to this geologic era.
What is the Mesozoic?
This type of valley is typically carved by rivers.
What is a V-shaped valley?
This common clastic sedimentary rock is composed mainly of sand-sized particles.
What is Sandstone?
Oceanic crust is mainly composed of this mafic igneous rock.
What is Basalt?
This mineral effervesces when hydrochloric acid is applied.
What is Calcite?
The K–Pg boundary marks the extinction of these animals.
What are the dinosaurs (non-avian)?
This erosional feature forms when a meander is cut off from the main river.
What is an Oxbow Lake?
Cross-bedding in sandstone typically indicates deposition by these two agents.
What are wind or water currents?
Hotspot volcanism, such as that forming the Hawaiian Islands, occurs due to this feature in the mantle.
What is a mantle plume?
This term describes a mineral’s tendency to break along flat, parallel planes related to its crystal structure.
What is Cleavage?
These marine arthropods, which thrived in the Paleozoic and are often used as index fossils, are now completely extinct.
What are trilobites?
This glacial depositional feature is a long ridge of till aligned with ice flow.
What is an end moraine?
A fining-upward sequence is characteristic of this type of river deposit.
What is a meandering river point bar?
The Andes Mountains are an example of this type of convergent margin.
What is a continental volcanic arc?
This mineral group includes halite, fluorite, and sylvite, all formed by ionic bonds between metals and halogens.
What are Halides?
This period saw the first appearance of land plants.
What is the Silurian?
Permafrost regions often feature these polygonal ground patterns formed by freeze–thaw cycles.
What are Ice-wedge polygons?
This facies model describes the predictable vertical succession of shallow marine environments as sea level falls.
What is a regressive sequence?
This type of boundary is associated with back-arc basins and accretionary wedges.
What is a convergent boundary?
This is the only common silicate mineral that contains both potassium and aluminum and is divided into orthoclase, microcline, and sanidine polymorphs.
What is K-feldspar (potassium feldspar)?
The Ediacaran fauna appeared just before this explosion of life forms.
What is the Cambrian Explosion?
This type of long, sinuous ridge is formed by sediment deposited in subglacial meltwater tunnels.
What is an Esker?
This sequence of structures — graded bedding, ripple lamination, and parallel lamination — is typical of a turbidity current deposit.
What is the Bouma Sequence?