Geology Study Guide

  1. Where do geysers, volcanoes, and hot springs form? Around plate boundaries and above hot spots.
  2. -Igneous rock is formed when magma cools and solidifies.

-Metamorphic Rock forms when minerals in other types of rocks are altered due to extreme heat and pressure

-Sedimentary rock is made of sediments that have been naturally compacted and cemented together

  1. What is geology? The study of the make-up of Earth and the processes that change and shape it!
  2. The theory of plate tectonics states that Earth’s crust and part of the mantle are broken up into sections that slowly move.
  3. -Physical weathering is a process that breaks big rocks into smaller rocks without changing the minerals they contain.

-Chemical weathering is a process that breaks down rocks by changing the minerals they contain.

-Erosion is a process that moves sediments to new locations.

6. A tsunami is a gigantic wave of sea water caused by an earthquake in oceanic crust

7. - A hydrothermal vent is a deep-sea geyser that forms as seawater sinks down through cracks in the oceanic crust and then releases extremely hot, mineral rich, water back up through the cracks in the crust

-A Seamount- an underwater volcano that forms wherever magma is erupting through oceanic crust

8. – A mid-ocean ridge is an underwater mountain; - an ocean trench is an extremely deep valley

9. Ocean trenches are caused when the seafloor dips down as one tectonic plate slides under another. Mid ocean ridges are caused by magma erupting through huge cracks in Earth’s crust as lava.

10. Active volcanoes have erupted sometime in the past 10,000 years; dormant volcanoes are considered active but haven’t erupted for a VERY long time, and extinct volcanoes have not erupted in the past 10,000 years.

11. The continental drift hypothesis suggests that all of the continents were once joined together as Pangaea until they broke apart and slowly moved away from each other.

12. Know the meaning of the following words: geyser, hotspot, fault, rock, volcano, earthquake.

13. Know the three types of MOUNTAINS: fold mountains, fault-block mountains, and dome mountains. An example of each type is: the Himalayas are fold mountains, Utah’s Navajo Mountain is an example of a dome mountain, and Germany’s Harz Mountains are an example of fault-block mountains.

14. The seismograph produces lines to show the energy of seismic waves while the Richter scale applies numbers to measure the magnitude of an earthquake based on the largest seismic wave recorded.

15. Know how to label the following parts of the earth on a diagram: inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust.