Exam #3 Study Guide Questions Below are questions that go with the notes we discussed in class. You do not need to answer these questions, as they will not be collected. These are intended to help you see if you understand the content that was discussed in class. The exam will only be 50 questions, and they will not be these exact questions. I hope you find these helpful. Minerals: 1. What is a mineral? What are the building blocks of minerals? 2. What is a rock? What are the building blocks of rocks? 3. Compare and contrast a mineral and a rock. 4. Compare and contrast elements and compounds. 5. How Do Minerals Form? What is crystallization? 6. How does evaporation of water cause crystallization? 7. How does slowly moving groundwater cause crystallization? 8. How does a decrease in temperature aid in crystallization? 9. What are some tests to do in order to identify minerals? 10. What is cleavage, why does it form, and how can it be recognized? 11. How is fracture different from cleavage? 12. Describe conchoidal fracture. 13. What is the term for how easy a mineral can be scratched? 14. What is Mohs scale of hardness? Know all 10 minerals on this scale in order! 15. If a mineral scratches another one other one, which mineral is harder? 16. What are density and specific gravity? 17. What is luster? 18. What is the difference between metallic luster and nonmetallic luster? 19. What is streak and how is it used to identify minerals? 20. Why is color helpful, but unreliable for mineral identification? 21. What is the difference between a mineral being opaque, translucent, and transparent? 22. What are some of the other properties of minerals that are less common than the other tests to identify minerals? 23. What are the requirements for a mineral resource to be called an ore or a gem? Igneous Rocks: 24. What do igneous rocks form from? 25. What is the difference between lava and magma? 26. Describe the events that occur to magma to produce an intrusive igneous rock. 27. Describe the events that occur to magma to produce an extrusive igneous rock. 28. What condition exists in order for magma to rise toward the surface? 29. Compared to the total amount of magma produced, how much magma makes it to the surface? 30. How does the rate of cooling affect crystal size? 31. What is another term for an extrusive igneous rock? Where does it cool? 32. Describe the size of the crystals that make up an extrusive igneous rock. 33. What is another term for an intrusive igneous rock? Where does it cool? Describe the size of the crystals. 34. Describe the size of the crystals that make up an intrusive igneous rock. 35. What are vesicles, and how do we describe a rock that has a lot of vesicles? 36. How does the texture of an igneous rock tell you if it is intrusive or extrusive? 37. Describe a mafic rock. What is it rich in? 38. Describe a felsic rock. What is it rich in?
39. Describe an intermediate rock. What is it rich in? 40. Why will two rocks with the exact same composition, but different cooling histories be given two different names? Sedimentary Rocks: 41. What is weathering? Erosion? 42. What are sedimentary rocks? 43. Which rock type is exposed at the surface more than any other rock type? 44. Describe the process of forming a Sedimentary Rock. 45. What is lithification? 46. What are compaction and cementation? How does each one occur? 47. What are the two main types of Sedimentary Rocks? 48. What category of sedimentary rocks are made of fragments of preexisting rocks? 49. Describe the steps to form a clastic sedimentary rock. 50. How are clastic sedimentary rocks classified? 51. What are the names of the grain sizes of sediment in order, from the largest to the smallest grains? 52. What is fissility and what type of rock displays fissility? 53. Why is grain size important? What does it tell you about the environment and transport mechanism? 54. Under what type of conditions can boulders be transported? Grain size reflects the strength of the process that transported/deposited the grains. 55. How strong of a current is required to carry silt and clay? How strong would the current be that deposits it? 56. How do we describe grains that have sharp or rough corners? 57. How do we describe grains that have smooth surfaces? 58. Why is the shape of grains important? What does it help us determine? 59. What happens to the shape of grains as they are transported? 60. What does the degree of rounding indicate about the distance the particles traveled? 61. What is a conglomerate composed of? 62. What does the size of the grains tell you about the energy of the environment in which the grains were deposited? 63. What does the shape of the grains tell you about the distance the grains traveled or the amount they were reworked? 64. Where would the grains used to form a conglomerate be deposited? 65. What is a breccia? 66. Where would the grains used to form a breccia be deposited? 67. What is a sandstone? Siltstone? Mudstone? Shale? 68. How do temperature changes, evaporation, or organisms form chemical sedimentary rocks? 69. What are two examples of minerals that form from evaporation? 70. What do we call chemical sedimentary rocks that form as material is deposited from solution due to evaporation of water? 71. What mineral is chert made of and what are two ways it can form? 72. What mineral is limestone made of and what are two ways it can form? 73. Where and how is travertine formed? 74. Where and how is coal formed? 75. What would structures such as beds, fossils, ripples, or raindrop impressions indicate about the environment in which a rock formed? Metamorphic Rocks: 76. What is metamorphism? How do metamorphic rocks form? 77. Does a rock melt during metamorphism?
78. What are the agents of metamorphism? Which one is the most important? 79. What are the two sources of heat for metamorphism? 80. What is meant by the term geothermal gradient? Pressure (differential stress) 81. What is the most chemically active fluid during metamorphism? 82. How do chemically active fluids contribute to metamorphism? 83. What are some of the sources of fluids during metamorphism? 84. What are the four main types of metamorphism? 85. What causes contact metamorphism? 86. What is a baked zone and where does it form? 87. What causes hydrothermal metamorphism? 88. Where is hydrothermal metamorphism most widespread? 89. What is regional metamorphism associated with? 90. Which type of metamorphism produces the greatest volume of metamorphic rock? 91. Which type of plate boundary produces most metamorphic rock? 92. Each mineral is stable within a specific range of temperatures and pressures. 93. What happens when minerals are no longer within a specific range of temperatures and pressures that they are normally stable? 94. When can compositional changes occur during metamorphism? 95. What do variations in the mineralogy and textures of metamorphic rocks tell us? 96. What is foliation and why does it form? 97. A nonfoliated rock will develop in what type of environment? The Rock Cycle: 98. What is the rock cycle? 99. Know how to use the rock cycle to predict what a particular rock may next become depending on environmental conditions. 100. Know how to use the rock cycle to tell what a particular rock has been through as a result of environmental conditions. 101. What is weathering? Erosion? 102. What is lithification? Earthquakes 103. What is an earthquake? What causes them? 104. Where do most earthquakes occur? 105. Describe the elastic rebound theory and the cause of earthquakes. 106. Who developed elastic rebound theory? Which earthquake and fault did he study? 107. Where does the earthquake actually start? 108. What is the term for the point on the surface of the Earth, directly above the focus? 109. What are smaller earthquakes that sometimes precede a major earthquake? 110. What are smaller earthquakes that follow a major earthquake? 111. Why can earthquakes sometimes cause earthquakes on other faults? 112. Why are aftershocks dangerous even though they are smaller than the main shock? 113. What is the study of earthquakes and seismic waves? 114. What is an instrument that record seismic waves? 115. What is the record obtained from the seismograph? 116. What are the two main categories of seismic waves? 117. Which category of seismic waves travel through the earth s interior, spreading outward from the focus in all directions? 118. What are the two types of body waves? What are their real names as well as their abbreviated names? Why were they given these names?
119. Describe the motion of P waves. What will they do to rock as they pass through? 120. Describe the motion of S waves. What will they do to rock as they pass through? 121. What are the relative speeds of P, S, and surface waves? 122. In what order will P, S, and surface waves arrive at the recording station? 123. What type of materials can P waves pass through? S waves? 124. Put each wave in order of increasing amplitude. 125. Explain why there are P and S wave Shadow Zones as waves travel through the interior of the Earth. 126. Which type of waves spread outward from the epicenter in all directions? 127. Which type of waves cause the most destruction? 128. Which type of waves exhibit the greatest amplitude and slowest velocity? 129. What happens to the time between the P and S waves as seismic stations are further and further away from where the earthquake originated? 130. What are the steps for locating the epicenter of an earthquake? 131. What information is needed in order to know a locations distance to the epicenter? 132. What is the minimum number of seismograms of the same earthquake at different locations are needed in order to determine the epicenter? 133. Compare and contrast intensity and magnitude of an earthquake. 134. What does the Modified Mercalli Scale measure? What numbers does it use? 135. What are the limitations and drawbacks of intensity scales? 136. What does the Richter Scale measure? What numbers does it use? 137. On what is the Richter Scale based? 138. How much of an increase does each unit of Richter magnitude corresponds to in wave amplitude and energy? 139. Know how to use a Richter nomogram. 140. What types of damage and problems are a result of shaking during an earthquake? 141. How does the soil condition in an area affect earthquake shaking? 142. On which type of material is best to built? Worst? 143. How does shaking during an earthquake increase the probability of fire? 144. Which earthquake is known from the fires that spread, causing much of the damage? 145. What is liquefaction, and what causes it? 146. What can result from vertical displacement along a fault located on the ocean floor? 147. Compare a tsunamis height compared to its wavelength while in the open ocean. 148. What happens to a tsunamis wave height as it enters shallower coastal waters? 149. What are some warnings of a tsunami? 150. Why should you not go back to the coast after a tsunami first hits the coast? 151. How often should great earthquakes occur on each section of the San Andreas Fault? What is the average? 152. How long has it been since the last great earthquake on the southernmost section of the San Andreas Fault? 153. What can we do now to prepare for our next great earthquake? Weathering and Mass Wasting: 154. What is weathering? 155. What is erosion? 156. What is mass wasting? 157. Compare and contrast erosion and mass wasting. 158. What are the two types of weathering? What happens to the chemical composition of the material as it experiences each type? 159. What are some examples of mechanical weathering? Describe how each one breaks down rock into smaller grains. 160. Describe in detail how frost wedging occurs and what is produced at the base of a cliff where it occurs.
161. How does salt crystal growth mechanically weather rock? Where is this common? 162. Why does sheeting (exfoliation or unloading) occur? 163. What is the most important agent of chemical weathering, and why? 164. How does carbonic acid form? 165. How do mechanical and chemical weathering work together? Think surface area 166. What are some common triggers of mass wasting? 167. In what two ways does saturation with water contribute to mass wasting? 168. What are some examples of how nature can oversteepen slopes? 169. What is the angle of repose? 170. Describe the size of the particles that can have the steepest slopes. 171. What happens if the angle is increased beyond the angle of repose? 172. How do plants protect against erosion and contribute to stability of slopes? 173. How does fire and people removing vegetation contribute to slope instability? 174. How can earthquakes contribute to mass wasting? 175. What are some of the different types of Mass Wasting from slowest to fastest. 176. Describe how creep occurs. 177. Which type of mass wasting moves cm/hour and involves a downward and outward movement of a portion of a hillside, usually slipping on a curved surface within the soil? 178. What type of mass wasting process involves a water-saturated mixture moving downslope? 179. What is the difference between a mud flow and a debris flow? 180. What type of mass wasting process is when a large mass of bedrock detaches from rock below and slides downhill. 181. What type of mass wasting process involves rock or debris freefalling from a cliff 182. What type of mass wasting process is when material breaks loose and travels quickly downhill, mixed with and cushioned by air. Hydrologic Cycle: 183. What illustrates the circulation of Earth s water supply? 184. What drives the hydrologic cycle? 185. Be able to tell how water moves from one reservoir to another by following paths throughout the hydrologic cycle. 186. What is evaporation? 187. What is transpiration? 188. What is condensation? 189. What is advection? What would happen if there was no advection? 190. What is precipitation? 191. What is runoff? 192. What is sublimation? 193. What is infiltration? 194. What is percolation? Running Water: 195. Compare the terms drainage basin, divide, and continental divide. 196. Which section along the length of a stream is typically dominated by erosion? Transportation? Deposition? 197. What factors determine the velocity of streamflow? 198. What is base level? 199. What is ultimate base level compared to local or temporary base levels? 200. What material makes up the bedload of a stream, and where is the bedload located?
201. What material makes up the suspended load of a stream, and where is the suspended load located? 202. What material makes up the dissolved load of a stream, and where is the dissolved load located? 203. How is the competence of a river different than its capacity? 204. Contrast a young valley from a mature valley. 205. When is sediment deposited? 206. What is stream sediment is called? 207. What is the difference between a delta and an alluvial fan? 208. What is a natural levee and how does it form? Groundwater: 209. Compare the zone of saturation with the zone of aeration/unsaturation/soil moisture. 210. Which zone is groundwater found? 211. What is meant by the term water table? 212. What is the source for groundwater? 213. What is porosity? 214. What is permeability? 215. Is it possible for a material to be porous, but not permeable? Give an example. 216. What is the difference between an aquifer and an aquitard? 217. What is groundwater mostly used for? 218. In arid regions, how should we view groundwater as a resource? 219. What are some problems caused as groundwater is withdrawn? Why do these problems arise? 220. What are some sources for groundwater contamination? 221. How do natural processes help with purification of contaminated groundwater? 222. How do springs form? Are they in the zone of saturation or zone of aeration? 223. What type of rock does groundwater easily dissolve? How is carbonic acid formed? 224. How do caverns form? Do they start forming in the zone of saturation or zone of aeration? 225. How do stalactites and stalagmites form? Which form on the ceiling, and which form on the ground? 226. What is the term for areas that have been shaped by dissolving groundwater? 227. If Karst topography is found in an arid area, when was it likely that that surface formed? 228. What are sinkholes and how do they form?