Exam 1 Flashcards
How old is the earth?
4.5 billion years old
What is the core of the earth made of
Mostly iron, then nickel alloy, solid inner core, liquid outer core.
What are the layers of the earth from inside out?
Inner core, outer core, mantle, lithosphere, asthenosphere, crust.
The inner planets that are similar to the earth are called what?
Terrestrial.
How did the planets form?
From the same cloud of dust and gas that formed the sun, called the nebula.
How did we get oxygen in the atmosphere?
The evolution of the earliest plants, the algae, which are photosynthetic.
What are the negatively charged particles in an atom called?
Electrons.
What is covalent bonding
When two elements share an electron.
Why are diamonds so strong? what makes it the hardest substance in the world?
Because of it’s covalent bonding.
What are the two most abundant elements in the crust of the earth?
Oxygen and Silicone
What is the name of the hardest known mineral?
Diamond
What is the name of the minerals that contain silicone and oxygen?
Silicates
Why are the ferromagnesium silicate minerals both dark and dense?
They contain iron and magnesium, which are both dark and dense.
what does the term crystalline mean in minerals?
Internal Arrangement of atoms.
The relationship between the materials of which a rock is composed.
What is the name of the mineralogist that invented the scale of hardness?
Frederick Mohs.
What is cleavage?
Cleavage is the tendency of a mineral to break along smooth planes parallel to zones of weak bonding.
What are isotopes?
Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons but the same number of protons, like carbon.
What is the nucleus of an atom made of?
Protons and neutrons.
What is a rock?
A rock is a naturally formed solid made mostly out of minerals.
What are the three different types of rocks
Sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous
What’s the difference between lava and magma?
Magma is composed of molten rock and is stored in the Earth’s crust. Lava is magma that reaches the surface of our planet through a volcano vent.
What are the different types of magma?
Felsic, Mafic and intermediate.
What is obsidian?
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extrudes from a volcano and cools rapidly, with minimal crystal growth.
What is the correct order of crystallization?
Bowen’s reaction series. Minerals that crystalize at the highest temperature to lower temperature. Olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, biotite, muscovite, potassium feldspar, and quartz.
What’s another word for volcanic igneous rocks aka extrusive igneous rocks?
Extrusive, which are fast cooling
Platonic or? igneous rocks
Intrusive
What is a porphyritic igneous rock?
Two distinct grain sizes, rise or small which indicates two rates of cooling, slow and fast.
What kind of a rock is obsidian
Igneous, volcanic glass, which means it cooled fast, so fast that crystals didn’t even form.
What kind of a volcano is Mt St Helen’s?
Composite or stratovolcano.
Where are most composite-stratovolcano located today?
The ring of fire
What is a sleeping or dormant volcano?
It’s dormant, it looks like a volcano but there hasn’t been any eruption either ever or in 10,000 years
What is a caldera?
a collapsed super volcano.
What is a lahar?
Lahars are mudflow created from melting glaciers and ash from volcanic eruptions.
What is a pyroclastic flow?
A cloud of ash comes out of the volcano and rolls down the slope.
How much ash could be deposited in New York if Yellowstone’s super volcano erupted?
1-3 millimeters.
What is the name of the dominate mineral in limestone?
Calcium carbonate.
What type of rock is coal?
Organic rock created from prehistoric vegetation.
What is a common mineral in an evaporate rock?
Gypsum or halite.
What is coal made out of?
Fossilized plant remains.
What controls the size of crystals that form igneous rock?
The rate of cooling.
What is foliation?
The parallel alignment of flat minerals perpendicular to the maximum direction of stress.
What is contact metamorphism and what is regional metamorphism?
Contact means rocks in contact with hot magma, only involves heat. regional means collisions of continents. Like collisions that formed Pangea.. Regional involves pressure.
What is sorting? (sedimentary rocks)
Group them by the size of the partials.
Which one is the world’s most active volcano?
Kilauea.
How many active volcanoes are there in the world today?
1500.
What is a spatter cone?
It is a lava cone, where the lava is very viscous and felsic so it doesn’t flow, it spatters.
What kind of volcanic activity is Hawaii?
Hawaii is primarily shield volcanoes, which are a result of hot spot volcanism.
What is a plynian eruption?
A kind of eruption that is very explosive the expels a very high column of pyroclastic ash in the air.
When did Toba erupt in Indonesia?
It almost caused the extinction of humans 74,000 years ago.
What was the Vei classification of Toba?
It was vei 8. this has a significant impact on climate for the next several years.
Do we have volcanoes on the western coast of ? how did they form? what kind of geological setting/ volcanic activity produces the volcanoes in the western part of north america?
its subduction volcanism, hot spot volcanism and rifting. Collsion, subduction plate boundary. Composite volcanoes that are the result of subduction, hot spot and rifting.
The outer planets that are gassy are called what?
Jovian.
